As we await the Apple event scheduled for this morning, we learn that China's Yangtze River Storage and Yangtze Memory Technologies have entered Apple's supply chain. Patently Apple posted a report on this potential move back in March in a report titled "Apple considering expanding its roster of Memory Chip Suppliers including Yangtze Memory, its first Chinese supplier." After a disruption in production with a Japanese partner, Apple chose to seek out suppliers to diversify its global supply of memory chips.

China's TechWeb news site is reporting that "The entry of YMTC into Apple's supply chain was first reported by BusinessKorea, who said in the report that Apple had listed YMTC as a NAND flash memory supplier for the iPhone 14.

The BusinessKorea report also stated in the report that the NAND flash memory currently required by Apple is supplied by Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Kioxia, while DRAM relies on Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix and is highly dependent on South Korean memory chip manufacturers .

Market watchers believe that Apple's partnership with YMTC will further diversify their suppliers of NAND flash memory, while also helping to lower the price of this important component.

The BusinessKorea report further added that Apple needs to show a friendly gesture to the Chinese government to promote sales of its products in the Chinese market. The Chinese government holds a 24 percent stake in YTMC. In fact, YTMC is a state-run enterprise. According to Forbes, as of 2021, 51 Chinese companies were supplying parts to Apple. China overtook Taiwan to become the largest supplier for Apple.

The BusinessKorea report did not mention the start time of YMTC's supply of NAND flash memory to the iPhone 14, nor the supply amount and which models they would end up in.