Samsung and Apple are two fierce rivals in the smartphone market, frequently teasing each other in advertising campaigns. Despite this rivalry, Samsung, the South Korean conglomerate, remains a key supplier of iPhone components, including displays and memory. According to Korean sources, Apple now aims to source a significant portion of its memory supply from Samsung amid drastic shortages.
As reported by The Korea Economic Daily, Apple currently sources iPhone memory from Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron. Although SK Hynix was Apple’s leading memory supplier between 2012 and 2018, Samsung has since strengthened its position within Apple’s supply chain. Industry sources estimate that Samsung will supply between 60% and 70% of the low-power DRAM used in the iPhone 17 lineup.
And there is a solid rationale behind this shift. As AI data centers rapidly expand, SK Hynix and Micron have increasingly redirected their production capacity toward high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for AI-focused customers, leaving a significant gap in the commercial memory market. Meanwhile, Samsung continues to manufacture general-purpose DRAM at a massive scale, making it a more reliable supplier for Apple and the upcoming iPhone 18 series.
According to the Korean outlet, Samsung"s 12GB LPDDR5X memory is the thinnest among its peers, measuring just 0.65 mm in thickness. It also boasts improved thermal resistance and power efficiency, with gains of 21.2% and 25% respectively, compared to the previous generation. Industry insiders say that Samsung is currently the only company capable of meeting Apple’s stringent quality standards. With more production capacity focusing on AI demands, Apple is expected to become even more reliant on Samsung memory chips in the coming years.
Of course, the massive shortage in the commercial memory market has been a boon for manufacturers, sharply boosting their profits. For example, in early 2025, a Samsung 12GB LPDDR5X unit cost around $30, but it is now selling for $70.