Samsung is one of the Big Three memory manufacturers. Samsung’s phone division had some news articles talkimg about how they couldn’t get Samsung’s memory division to give them privileged access, even.
(Though for context, about two years earlier, when there was a glut of memory and Samsung’s memory division was losing money, they apparently went to the Samsung phone division and tried to get them to buy a bunch of the excess, which I suppose would have meant putting more memory in their phones than would have been optimal. The phone division told them no way.)
And now it’s the phone division losing money and the memory division making a ton of money.
Samsung’s mobile division may have posted its first-ever quarterly loss in Q2 2026, despite strong Galaxy S26 sales and record-breaking profits for Samsung Electronics overall.
The culprit is memory. DRAM prices have reportedly surged roughly 850% year-over-year, driven by insatiable demand from AI server infrastructure. Samsung’s semiconductor division is reaping the benefits, but its mobile division is paying the bill.
That’s not too surprising. Samsung is one of those mega companies that its own divisions fight for contracts all the time. I remember hearing about, for example, the Samsung division that produces touch screens isn’t guaranteed a spot in the latest Galaxy smartphone but has to bid on contracts for that spot just like everyone else.
Samsung is one of the Big Three memory manufacturers. Samsung’s phone division had some news articles talkimg about how they couldn’t get Samsung’s memory division to give them privileged access, even.
(Though for context, about two years earlier, when there was a glut of memory and Samsung’s memory division was losing money, they apparently went to the Samsung phone division and tried to get them to buy a bunch of the excess, which I suppose would have meant putting more memory in their phones than would have been optimal. The phone division told them no way.)
And now it’s the phone division losing money and the memory division making a ton of money.
https://www.megamobilecontent.com/news/2026/07/17/samsung-phone-division-first-loss-memory-prices/
That’s not too surprising. Samsung is one of those mega companies that its own divisions fight for contracts all the time. I remember hearing about, for example, the Samsung division that produces touch screens isn’t guaranteed a spot in the latest Galaxy smartphone but has to bid on contracts for that spot just like everyone else.