According to reports from South Korean and Chinese industry media, as cited by DigiTimes, Apple sought to coerce Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix into lowering DRAM procurement prices by introducing ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), a Chinese memory chip manufacturer, as a new supplier option. However, this tactic not only fell short of cutting costs but inadvertently handed the two Korean memory giants the upper hand in price negotiations. CXMT flatly rejected Apple's demands for price reductions, maintaining that its quotes should be on par with—or even exceed—those of Samsung and SK Hynix. This confidence was rooted in the fact that Chinese tech giants like Huawei and Xiaomi had already locked in most of CXMT's production capacity through long-term contracts, rendering CXMT's reliance on Apple's orders negligible. In the meantime, Samsung and SK Hynix are pivoting their production focus toward high-value-added AI server memory (such as HBM), thereby tightening the supply of general-purpose DRAM and bolstering prices further.