Apple Clings to Samsung as RAM Prices Soar

[MacRumors]

Apple is significantly increasing its reliance on Samsung for iPhone memory as component prices surge, according to The Korea Economic Daily.

Apple is said to be expanding the share of iPhone memory it sources from Samsung due to rapidly rising memory prices. The shift is expected to result in Samsung supplying roughly 60% to 70% of the low-power DRAM used in the iPhone 17, compared with a more even split with SK Hynix in previous generations, with Micron also participating as a smaller supplier.

The change is occurring against a backdrop of tightening supply in the global memory market. The iPhone relies on low-power double data rate memory (LPDDR), which is optimized for energy efficiency and thermal performance in mobile devices. While Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron all manufacture LPDDR at scale, industry sources report that SK Hynix and Micron have increasingly redirected production capacity toward high-bandwidth memory (HBM), which is in high demand for artificial intelligence accelerators and data center hardware. As a result, their available capacity for mobile-focused LPDDR has become heavily constrained.

By contrast, Samsung has apparently maintained substantial production of general-purpose and mobile DRAM, allowing it to meet Apple's requirement for extremely large and predictable volumes. Samsung is said to be the only company that can meet Apple's conditions in a situation where SK Hynix seems to be focused on HBM.

According to the report, Apple's hardware is particularly sensitive to momentary voltage spikes, which are not well accommodated by its latest chips, including the A19 and A19 Pro. This places additional pressure on memory suppliers to deliver components that perform identically across very large production runs.

The price of a 12GB LPDDR5X module, the likes of which are used in the iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro, has risen sharply from around $30 at the beginning of 2025 to roughly $70 today. Apple's scale and long-standing practice of negotiating multi-year supply agreements typically provide some insulation from short-term price volatility, but the magnitude of the increase has made supplier reliability and volume commitments more important. Concentrating a much larger share of orders with Samsung should allow Apple to secure more predictable deliveries and potentially benefit from economies of scale, even as overall component costs rise.

Article Link: Apple Clings to Samsung as RAM Prices Soar

 

[seek3r]

Modern “AI” damages everything it touches :/

 

[AAPLbuyback]

No company manages supply chain better than Apple.

 

[mozumder]

Eventually a company so vertically integrated like Apple will have to build their own fabs. Real men have fabs, like Jerry Sanders used to say. Their reliance on TSMC and Samsung is economically unsound.

 

[AndyUnderscoreR]

The sooner the AI bubble bursts, the better.

 

[irusensei]

Soooo... should I buy that M4 Studio I've been diligently planing with a healthy dose of delayed gratification or risk q2 waiting for the M5?

 

[bigglow]

If Apple didn't use soldered memory I'd likely be using these memories on these THEORETICAL Macs:

- 2x64GB 128GB DDR5-5600Mhz SO-DIMM for $280 on my $2499 MBP 16" M5 Pro 24GB 512GB
- 4x64GB 256GB DDR5-5600Mhz SO-DIMM for $560 on my $2299 iMac 32" 6K M5 Pro 24GB 512GB

 

[thelion7]

It’s crazy but based on what I’ve seen from Apple over the last few years every major component in their products will be manufactured by them.

We’re already seeing this with the C1/C1x and N1 chips.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

It’s crazy but based on what I’ve seen from Apple over the last few years every major component in their products will be manufactured by them.

We’re already seeing this with the C1/C1x and N1 chips.

They are fabed by other companies. Apple doesn’t manufacture any of their components.

 

[thelion7]

They are fabed by other companies. Apple doesn’t manufacture any of their components.

Ah didn’t know that. So Apple are just wanting to spec their own components.

 

[walnuts]

Haha Tim Cook is saying "See! See! This is why we charge huge markups on RAM upgrades!"

 

[kaishockz]

The sooner the AI bubble bursts, the better.

AI is here to stay. The Thing with the bubble is also true.

 

[switz]

The $40 increase mentioned above does not seem like a lot until you multiply it by however many million iPhones are made. Then it does not seem like chump change. 😳😱

 

[HouseLannister]

No company manages supply chain better than Apple.

Samsung is managing the supply chain. Apple is just giving them a bunch of money so they can keep making phones since they don't actually make most of their components. Samsung is also "the only company" that can do this according to the article, so Apple is in a tight spot.

 

[cateye]

Eventually a company so vertically integrated like Apple will have to build their own fabs. Real men have fabs, like Jerry Sanders used to say. Their reliance on TSMC and Samsung is economically unsound.

Fabs are eye-wateringly expensive to build and difficult to run. The reason there are so few of them is because they only work due to economies of scale—serving the needs of many customers, not just one, and the ability to shift both customers and methods as markets require. Apple owning its own fabs would allow none of this.

Apple's entire structure as a company is based on outsourcing of manufacture. Choosing literally the most fraught and expensive possible thing to in-source is not based in any kind of economic, practical, or business reality.

 

[gnomeisland]

I've wondered if Apple could/would switch to HBM for its desktop line-up. Being overly dependent on Samsung seems like a medium- to long-term risk for Apple.

 

[seek3r]

If Apple didn't use soldered memory I'd likely be using these memories on these THEORETICAL Macs:

- 2x64GB 128GB DDR5-5600Mhz SO-DIMM for $280 on my $2499 MBP 16" M5 Pro 24GB 512GB
- 4x64GB 256GB DDR5-5600Mhz SO-DIMM for $560 on my $2299 iMac 32" 6K M5 Pro 24GB 512GB

You, uh, havent looked at RAM prices recently, huh? Triple or quadruple those price estimates. Apple’s memory upgrade prices, for like the first time ever, actually are reasonably priced

 

[jlc1978]

Eventually a company so vertically integrated like Apple will have to build their own fabs. Real men have fabs, like Jerry Sanders used to say. Their reliance on TSMC and Samsung is economically unsound.

Not necessarily since it gives them a fall back if one experiences problems, and with Apple's volume helps keep prices down via competition. They also benefit from scale at those places, since they produce even more than just Apple chips. While having it all in house has advantages, such as control, they lose some of the benefits of scale and diversification. One problem at Apple's fab and they face supply chain problems and no other supplier to turn to or at least have a continuing, if smaller, supply of chips.

Since memory is essentially a commodity product, investing in producing it has few benefits and some potentially serious drawbacks.

If you want fabs, invest in making the custom chips you need to keep verything in house and control the roadmap. At some point, Apple may simply make an all in one with memory and everything, no outside chips to add; and use their own custom fab shop. Even then, outsourcing the fabrication while keeping control of the design makes more sense because you can still diversify production and get the benefits of scale you don't get with in house shop; and don't have to reinvest large sums of money as the tech for making chips improves. In short, you outsource the risks.

 

[PBG4 Dude]

Ah didn’t know that. So Apple are just wanting to spec their own components.

Apple has a complete fab in campus so they can make just about any part they want. Then they work with manufacturers to develop these parts at scale.

Apple used to have their own factories in California but those went the way of the dodo in the 90s.

 

[Spike1999]

Surely they should be bringing this in-house.

 

[seek3r]

Surely they should be bringing this in-house.

Takes about a decade and hundreds of billions to build out a new fab, and even then the raw materials are also skyrocketing in price because of demand…

 

[bigglow]

You, uh, havent looked at RAM prices recently, huh? Triple or quadruple those price estimates. Apple’s memory upgrade prices, for like the first time ever, actually are reasonably priced

See the link I provided for historical prices pre-September.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

I'm curious how these companies are planning on selling services from these datacenters if they've bought such a huge volume of RAM (and presumably other parts) such that nobody can actually build or buy client devices to access them.

It seems like the basic math isn't working at all. To the point that I wonder if someone is intentionally causing this mania to cripple the consumer/client market.

 

[shenfrey]

And people thought I was crazy buying 64GB for my gaming pc. It’s overkill they said. It was unnecessary they said.

You know what’s crazy now? The fact I could sell my modules for 3x the price I paid for them.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

You, uh, havent looked at RAM prices recently, huh? Triple or quadruple those price estimates. Apple’s memory upgrade prices, for like the first time ever, actually are reasonably priced

Apple's prices aren't suddenly reasonable; the entire market is unreasonable. If you need a new computer, buy it now, otherwise sit it out. Try again in a year or two; the bottom will fall out.

The entire AI market can get bent.