Samsung's mobile division is cutting back. According to a report in the South Korean business daily Money Today, cited by heise online, Samsung's Mobile eXperience (MX) unit has asked suppliers to reduce delivery volumes by 20 to 30 percent for the fourth quarter, and the production cut could pull the company's total smartphone output as much as 30 percent below previous expectations. Instead of the up to 270 million units Samsung had hoped to build this year — buoyed by the success of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 — the company now looks headed toward roughly 200 million, the report says.
The reason is the same memory shortage that has reshaped the PC and phone markets all year. As AI data centers soak up DRAM and NAND capacity, prices have spiralled. Heise cites TrendForce data showing 12 GB of LPDDR5X DRAM passed $145 in the second quarter — a 175 percent jump year over year — with a further roughly 20 percent rise, to as much as $180, expected in the third quarter. For a company that must buy memory at those prices and then sell finished phones, the margin has evaporated. One industry source told Money Today that Samsung's handsets "currently turn no profit at all when sold," and that cutting production is a way to protect group-level earnings.
Those group earnings are being carried by the other side of Samsung: the memory chip business. Samsung has already issued preliminary guidance for a record third quarter, with operating profit up nearly ninefold year over year to about 107.4 trillion won (roughly €72 billion). Its MX division, by contrast, is estimated to post an operating loss of about 1.9 trillion won (around €1.3 billion).
The squeeze is industry-wide. Apple and Google have raised prices, Samsung itself lifted Galaxy S26 prices by at least €100 in recent days, and smaller manufacturers are hit hardest. Micron — the world's third-largest memory maker — has said prices will not recover next year, meaning the phone market's cost problem is likely to persist into 2027.
