Chip
23:09, 15-Feb-2018
Apple trying to buy iPhone memory chips from Chinese firm: Japanese media
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American tech giant Apple is in talks with a Chinese chip-maker for a deal to procure memory chips for its next-gen iPhones, according to a report published in Japan's Nikkei Asian Review on Wednesday.
The report published in Nikkei's website is marked as "exclusive" but doesn't cite a single source from either Apple or the Chinese firm, Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., Ltd.
Technology writers at CGTN Digital cannot verify the news for now, as most Chinese are celebrating the Spring Festival, with nearly all businesses shut for at least a week-long nation-wide holiday.
China's chip-maker market is wide open
Memory chips are used to store data such as photos, videos, music and apps in our smartphones.
A lot of smartphones in the market now are priced based on the amount of data they can store. Phones with larger storage capacity are usually priced 10 to 30 percent higher.
Major global chip producers include Samsung, Intel, Toshiba etc. As of now, there are no major producers based in China, which is the reason why many companies in the country are investing hugely in a bid to establish a homegrown chip-maker.
Yangtze sets eye on the future
Unigroup's Beijing office /VCG Photo
Unigroup's Beijing office /VCG Photo
The main investor of Yangtze Memory is Unigroup, owned by Tsinghua University, which ranks among the best universities in China. Unigroup is a big name with stakes in several sectors within the country.
Found in central China's Wuhan in 2016, Yangtze Memory seems to have set its eye on becoming the country's largest memory chip-maker in the near future.
According to Yangtze Memory's "under-construction" website, the company invested 24 billion US dollars to build a "Memory IC Base" in Wuhan, which aims to reach a monthly capacity of 300 thousand wafers after completion.