A recent report by Bloomberg says that Apple is looking to diversify its fleet of memory chip providers for its iPhone supply chain. Apple already works with Samsung and SK Hynix Inc., but the addition of new chip makers would help the company mitigate the risks of supply shortages.
Although Samsung has already revealed its plans to build massive semiconductor factories in the US, this move by Apple may present tough competition from other chip manufacturers down the road for Samsung.
Apple is in talks with Chinese semiconductor Yangtze Memory Technologies and is already testing sample NAND flash memory. Yangtze Memory Technologies is based in Wuhan, and it was founded back in 2016.
Reports claim that Yangtze Memory has already passed Apple's validation tests
This new player in the market, which is backed by chipmaking giant Tsinghua Unigroup, is yet to finalize a deal with Apple. But there are reports from Digitimes that say Yangtze Memory Technologies has passed Apple's validation tests, and the company will begin small volumes of shipments in May.
Yangtze Memory Technologies is in the process of convincing Apple that it has all the materials and scale necessary to meet the demands of the iPhone.
However, reports suggest that Yangtze's memory chip is at least a generation behind that of Samsung and other Apple suppliers. So, there are chances that the chips from the Yangtze could be used in entry-level devices like the iPhone SE.
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