Samsung Electronics to Raise Mobile DRAM and NAND Prices for Smartphone Makers

Samsung Electronics plans to raise supply prices across its mobile DRAM memory and NAND flash chips for smartphone manufacturers in the upcoming quarterly negotiations. The adjustment covers mobile DRAM and NAND flash chips, with smartphone makers as the counterparties.

Global demand for artificial intelligence large-model training and inference infrastructure continues to grow, driving sustained increases in orders for high bandwidth memory (HBM) and enterprise-grade high-density storage chips. Major memory chip manufacturers, including Samsung, are adjusting wafer capacity allocation, shifting advanced packaging and wafer production lines toward AI hardware. This has compressed effective output of conventional mobile memory (LPDDR) and standard NAND flash for consumer electronics and smartphones.

A new generation of smartphones requires greater software and hardware adaptation for on-device AI, and major phone brands have generally raised the base running memory capacity of their flagship models to 12GB or even above 16GB. Smartphone manufacturers are therefore purchasing more high-performance memory dies per device. DRAM and NAND flash are key components that account for a relatively high share of a smartphone's bill of materials (BOM).