Apple Inc. is throwing its substantial weight, and $ 3 billion in cash, behind Bain Capital’s multibillion-dollar bid for Toshiba’s flash memory business, Bloomberg reports, citing unnamed sources.

If true, this would mark Apple’s biggest acquisition since its 2014 purchase of Beats Electronics for $ 3 billion.

For many, Apple has quietly circled the deal, in in want of keeping the business out of the hands of San Jose-based hard drive device Western Digital Corp. Until recently, Apple had backed a rival bid led by its main manufacturing partner, Taiwan’s Foxconn.

Toshiba’s flash memory chips are embedded in hundreds of consumer electronic devices, including the iPhone. Apple wants to keep the supply of key iPhone components competitive: It already relies on its rival Samsung for a number of hard- like the edge-to-edge OLED screen on the forthcoming iPhone X.

This article, Toshiba said it planned to focus on the Bain Capital-led bid, which is rumored to be worth somew somew living between $ 18 billion and $ 22 billion, with a promise of more than $ 1 billion in infrastructure advice. the deal by the end of the month

In a statement yesterday, Toshiba direct criticized Western Digital, which had submitted at least six separate bids for the business. Western Digital has a joint venture agreement with Toshiba that it think gives it veto power over any sale of the business unit.

“Toshiba regrets that Western Digital persistently overstates its limited consent rights in public statements,” Toshiba said in a statement to reporters. “… Toshiba expects and is fully committed to completing a sale of [Toshiba Memory Corporation] by March 2018, and looks forward to a favorable resolution of SanDisk and Western Digital’s exaggerated claims in arbitration.

Western Digital is suing Toshiba over the sale and Toshiba has countersued.

Toshiba is selling the chip unit to cover billions of dollars of unexpected losses related to the collapse of its nuclear power business.