Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst with TF International Securities, has disclosed that Apple is actively engaging with the U.S. government to secure memory chip purchases from ChangXin Memory Technologies. This move comes in response to the anticipated further widening of the supply-demand gap for memory chips, a trend expected to persist until at least 2027. Kuo forecasts that a significant portion of memory capacity earmarked for consumer electronics in 2026, specifically between 15% and 20%, will be redirected to data centers by 2027, with this shift potentially accelerating further.

Given the constrained supply of memory chips, particularly LPDDR, Apple's actual pre-purchases of A20 chips, spanning from the latter half of 2026 to the first quarter of 2027, are projected to fall short of initial plans by a margin of 10% to 20%. It's worth noting, however, that a portion of this variance could be attributable to Apple's own practice of overbooking to mitigate supply chain risks.