A rift emerges between Samsung's phone and memory divisions

Updated on 01 Dec 2025 | Category: Technology

Samsung's memory division has reportedly rejected a long-term DRAM supply deal with Samsung MX for Galaxy phones. - SamMobile

Samsung has been the world's biggest smartphone and memory chipmaker for years, and this has helped it improve its profit margins while offering the fastest performance. However, it now appears that a rift has emerged between its two most important divisions, and it could be bad for the company in the long term.
Samsung doesn't want to sign a long-term RAM supply deal for Galaxy phones
Galaxy phones and tablets typically use Samsung’s own RAM (DRAM) and storage (NAND) chips. However, the company began incorporating Micron’s DRAM chips into its high-end phones last year. Now, reports suggest Samsung’s memory division has declined a deal from its mobile devices division. This deal would have allowed Samsung’s memory division to supply DRAM chips for Galaxy phones for at least a year.
Over the past few months, the prices of DRAM chips have increased drastically. Earlier this year, a 12GB LPDDR5X chip was priced at $33, but it now costs $70. This is a price rise of over 2x, and it is expected to increase even further next year. So, Samsung wanted to secure a long-term DRAM chip supply with stable pricing. However, to maximise profits, Samsung Device Solutions' Memory division, which makes DRAM chips, rejected the long-term supply deal.
Due to the ongoing AI boom, the demand for DRAM and HBM memory chips has increased exponentially. So, Samsung's memory division wants to cash in on its chips while this AI boom lasts.
The prices of smartphone processors (system-on-chips) have also increased drastically over the past few years. It is reported that Samsung spent KRW 8.7051 trillion (~$5.92 billion) on buying smartphone chips in the third quarter of 2024, but it had to spend KRW 10.9275 trillion (~$7.44 billion) to buy chips in the third quarter of 2025. That shows a 25.5% rise in the prices of mobile chips.
With the prices of processors and memory chips increasing rapidly, it is getting increasingly difficult for Samsung to offer substantial hardware improvements at the same price. Some reports also claim that the company might have to increase the prices of the Galaxy S26 compared to its predecessor despite not bringing any major hardware improvements.