Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple Begins Testing Controversial Chinese Memory Chips

According to Bloomberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook has now taken the pitch directly to administration officials, framing it as a way to route Chinese-made memory into devices for the Chinese market specifically, which would leave more Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron chips available for products sold elsewhere. Not everyone in the administration is said to be on board, so it remains unclear whether the lobbying push will succeed.
Click to expand...
I can see it now. Trump will demand a percentage of sales for his blessing just like how AMD and NVidia had to give the U.S. a cut of sales to be able to sell their AI chips to China.

www.wsj.com

Trump Says U.S. Will Allow Nvidia H200 Chip Sales to China, Get 25% Cut

The president’s decision to allow exports of the powerful chip comes after meeting last week with the company’s CEO, Jensen Huang.
www.wsj.com www.wsj.com
 
bodhisattva said:
I sincerely hope it pans out better than OWC RAM
Click to expand...
This is something different, as OWC has never manufactured their own DRAM chips.

While some companies do both (ex: DRAM chips made by Micron used in their own Crucial brand of RAM sticks) most companies don't. For example, Corsair or G.Skill or ADATA etc are selling RAM to consumers that use DRAM chips they buy from Samsung or Micron or SKHynix.

Similarly, Apple is buying those DRAM chips to have them installed onto the Apple Silicon package alongside the M-series chip.
 
I don’t understand… why controversial? Is it lower quality than the Korean-made memory?

And what happens if a memory has lower quality? It… forgets?
 
hovscorpion12 said:
Base model 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Pro chip with 24GB RAM and 1TB now starts at $2,699.00
Base model 16-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Max chip with 48GB RAM and 2TB now starts at $4,999.00.

M5 Pro
48GB of RAM is $600
64GB of RAM is $1,000

M5 Max
64GB of RAM is now $400
128GB of RAM is now $2,000

8TB is now $3,000.

Thank you, China. Apple should have kept everything where it was and eventually worked on a deal to reduce.

For the Ai bros. With MA Sales tax, an M5 Max 16" with 128GB/4TB is now $8,498.94
Click to expand...
Wait wait… I think I missed some piece of news lately… has Apple increased the price of the RAM upgrades after past month’s price bump?
 
bpb said:
You don't think that this machine you've specced out has this new chinese RAM in it right now ... do you? No.. you couldn't possibly think something so silly.
Click to expand...

Then explain the +$1,000 overnight

Both screenshots were taken yesterday
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0454.jpeg
    IMG_0454.jpeg
    123.9 KB · Views: 22
  • IMG_0453.jpeg
    IMG_0453.jpeg
    123.4 KB · Views: 22
  • Disagree
Reactions: jhfenton
hovscorpion12 said:
Apple has performed 2x price increases

The first one on June 25th. The second one this morning.
Click to expand...
Oh my God… I hadn’t noticed… gonna check my country’s Apple Store.

EDIT: Okay, just checked the MacBook Air and it hasn’t experienced a second price increase, neither the base price nor the memory/storage upgrades. I don’t know about the Pro and Max chips, as I don’t remember their previous prices.
 
  • Like
Reactions: hovscorpion12
Apple are partly to blame for the chip shortage. Getting deals on previous chips priced to the bone meant that the chip firms didn't have money to invest in new plants. Memory use has expanded massively. it's only recently Apple were selling an 8gb Mac now 96gb and 128gb is quite common for PC's. These factors together.

Apple should build/buy a memory FAB, they are too exposed. Apple have left themselves vulnerable.

Something the new guy has to be all over. It already looks like Macs have been held back due to lack of ram.....

I would have thought Tim would have seen this coming?
 
“Controversial” in the same way a pair of sneakers made in Vietnam instead of Akron is “controversial” because it’s less expensive.
 
  • Like
Reactions: rme
VulchR said:
For multiple reasons the US must invest in a domestic chip-making industry rather than relying on the PRC.
Click to expand...
The US is not a reliable trading partner these days, capacity should be built elsewhere.

Just a day ago Trump wanted to end all trade with Spain, to give one example. Also, corruption in the US has been turned up to 11. So build somewhere more stable, like Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Korea, or Japan.
 
  • Like
Reactions: CapitalIdea
UliBaer said:
The first has 4TB storage, the second one has 8TB storage?
Click to expand...
Correct. Both screenshots of 4TB and 8TB taken yesterday. The images I initially shared on page 1 is the second +$1,000 increase this morning.

My larger post is the price increase if the base models. (Unfortunately I never took a screenshot of those prices yesterday)
 
  • Like
Reactions: UliBaer
anthonylambert said:
Apple are partly to blame for the chip shortage. Getting deals on previous chips priced to the bone meant that the chip firms didn't have money to invest in new plants. Memory use has expanded massively. it's only recently Apple were selling an 8gb Mac now 96gb and 128gb is quite common for PC's. These factors together.

Apple should build/buy a memory FAB, they are too exposed. Apple have left themselves vulnerable.

Something the new guy has to be all over. It already looks like Macs have been held back due to lack of ram.....

I would have thought Tim would have seen this coming?
Click to expand...

Ah yes, poor Micron barely making ends meet…
Micron PROFIT list:
  • 2015: $2.90 Billion
  • 2016: -$276.0 Million
  • 2017: $5.09 Billion
  • 2018: $14.13 Billion
  • 2019: $6.31 Billion
  • 2020: $2.69 Billion
  • 2021: $5.86 Billion
  • 2022: $8.69 Billion
  • 2023: -$5.83 Billion
  • 2024: $778.0 Million
  • 2025: $8.54 Billion
If you’d like, I can also do Samsung, who we all know had to resort to eating cat food to survive all these years.
 
anthonylambert said:
Apple are partly to blame for the chip shortage. Getting deals on previous chips priced to the bone meant that the chip firms didn't have money to invest in new plants. Memory use has expanded massively. it's only recently Apple were selling an 8gb Mac now 96gb and 128gb is quite common for PC's. These factors together.

Apple should build/buy a memory FAB, they are too exposed. Apple have left themselves vulnerable.

Something the new guy has to be all over. It already looks like Macs have been held back due to lack of ram.....

I would have thought Tim would have seen this coming?
Click to expand...
Yeah, me too. Maybe he’s just not as smart as he used to be? Or maybe he was too sure that their long term contracts would hold… but yeah, it’s surprising for me as well.

As for Apple manufacturing… I don’t see it. Yes, it would be excellent for them regarding the supply chain, but as Tim already said, each company is good at something. Apple designs, orders (foundries) manufacture. It’s not the huge initial investment, I guess it would require to replace the machines for others with better technology every few years… I don’t know how viable is that for Apple.
 
ClaraStahlbaum said:
I couldn't care less if the chips are made in China. If it lowers the cost, and prevents price hikes - I am all for it.
Click to expand...
With all due respect, this kind of decision can impact others for different reasons. For example, the government may restrict the usage of Macs if the chips are made in china. We have had this come up with DGI on camera equipment before. Understand, I am not saying whether the fear is founded or reasonable, but big institutions or companies' response to things like this can have significant impact on the user base.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back