SanDisk fell 9 percent and Micron dropped 7 percent on August 24 after reports that the Trump administration may let Apple source memory chips from Chinese suppliers ahead of Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States.
The Wall Street Journal report raised the prospect of Apple buying DRAM and NAND from CXMT and YMTC, a shift that would hand China’s two biggest memory makers a marquee customer and threaten the pricing power of US and Korean suppliers.
Analysts pushed back on the selloff. KC Rajkumar called it an overreaction, noting CXMT cannot yet qualify for Apple’s iPhones and YMTC has committed its newest NAND to domestic customers. The Motley Fool noted that only YMTC competes directly with SanDisk in NAND, while CXMT focuses on DRAM, and cited reports that any Apple-China memory would be limited to devices sold inside China.
The report lands as memory prices surge and suppliers enjoy record margins. CXMT raised $8.6B in a Shanghai IPO and is expanding capacity, while YMTC has filed for its own listing. SanDisk, Micron and Western Digital all ended the session lower as investors weighed the long-term threat to a market currently in boom.
