Patently Apple reported in February 2018 that Apple had begun talks with Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) to buy memory chips. On September 07, 2022, we posted another report on this matter titled "China's Yangtze Memory Technologies has reportedly entered Apple's iPhone 14 Supply Chain. Two days later news broke that U.S. Lawmakers warned Apple about using China's Yangtze Memory Technologies for the iPhone 14. The warning came from both sides of the political aisle.

According to a new Digitimes report, "Apple has quietly suspended plans to purchase 128-layer NAND flash from Chinese supplier Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) for iPhones targeting the China market, and reportedly will have Samsung Electronics as the alternative supplier starting in 2023."

YMTC is already being investigated by the U.S. Commerce Department as it broke the law, violating export controls by selling to Huawei, a phone maker that has already experienced one of the worst trading sanctions for a tech firm.

Apple currently uses two Japanese memory chip firms, Western Digital and Kioxia, along with Korea's SK Hynix. The report didn't reveal the extent of Samsung's future involvement as an Apple supplier regarding memory chips.