Samsung Emerges as Dominant Memory Supplier for iPhone 17 [Report]

Samsung Electronics has secured the lion's share of memory orders for the iPhone 17, becoming the dominant supplier for the LPDDR5X RAM used in Apple's latest lineup.



Industry insiders estimate Samsung captured between 60% and 70% of the memory orders for the new devices, according to a report from The Korea Economic Daily. It is a notable break from previous years, when Apple typically split its low-power memory orders more evenly between Samsung and SK Hynix.


It really comes down to production priorities. SK Hynix and Micron remain heavily focused on churning out High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) to feed the booming AI server market, which left them with less capacity for standard mobile RAM. That worked out for Samsung. With analysts forecasting 247 million iPhone shipments for 2025, Cupertino needed a partner that could handle that kind of volume without blinking.

Apple is notoriously difficult to please, often enforcing custom specs that go well beyond industry standards. Samsung managed to deliver on those requirements with a new module that is just 0.65mm thick—the thinnest on the market. These chips also handle heat much better, offering a 21.2% improvement in thermal resistance. That is a crucial spec given the vapor-cooled design Apple is using to keep the A19 Pro chip from throttling.

Memory performance has become a bigger piece of the puzzle as Apple leans into artificial intelligence. The report indicates that the iPhone 17 Air, Pro, and Pro Max models feature 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM—the highest capacity in iPhone history—specifically to handle on-device generative AI tasks. Apple has also reportedly requested large volumes from Samsung for the iPhone 18, which is expected to debut next fall alongside other devices in a revamped release schedule.

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