Some U.S. senators have urged the intelligence community to review the risks of a possible deal between Apple and a state-owned Chinese chipmaker, citing threats to privacy and national security.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), Senate Intelligence Committee vice chairman, wrote to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines following reports that Apple Inc. was considering procuring NAND memory chips from the Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC). [letter]
Bloomberg first reported that Apple was testing sample NAND flash memory chips by YMTC and that the companies had been discussing the tie-up for months. [reuters]
In the letter posted on Thursday, the senators said the potential deal would cause “significant privacy and security vulnerabilities” to the global chain, citing YMTC’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)….