US lawmakers warn Apple on using Chinese group’s chips in new iPhone

Enlarge / On the left: iPhone 14. On the right: iPhone 14 Plus. Each shows a configuration of the new always-on lock screen functionality in iOS 16. (credit: Samuel Axon)

Republican lawmakers have warned Apple that it will face intense scrutiny from Congress if the California company procures memory chips from a controversial Chinese semiconductor manufacturer for the new iPhone 14.

Marco Rubio, Republican vice-chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said they were alarmed following a media report that Apple would add Yangtze Memory Technologies Co to its list of suppliers for Nand flash memory chips that are used to store data on smartphones.

“Apple is playing with fire,” Rubio told the Financial Times. “It knows the security risks posed by YMTC. If it moves forward, it will be subject to scrutiny like it has never seen from the federal government. We cannot allow Chinese companies beholden to the Communist party into our telecommunications networks and millions of Americans’ iPhones.”

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