Memory crunch hits smartphones: Xiaomi flags 2026 price hikes, Samsung under memory, AP pressure

Xiaomi President Lu Weibing told analysts on November 18 that the company has secured full-year memory supply for 2026, but warned that shortages could push smartphone prices higher, with product costs reflecting the rise in components, according to ijiwei. Meanwhile, Maeil Business Newspaper reports that with the Galaxy S26 launch approaching, rising memory and processor costs are pressuring Samsung to raise smartphone prices, after years of keeping them largely flat.

Memory crunch drives Xiaomi premium push
According to Chinese media outlet mrjjxw.com, Lu Weibing noted that memory chip prices hit their low point in 2023, and the current memory price surge is likely to be a longer-term trend. While the strong AI-driven demand for HBM is pushing global memory prices up, he expects new memory output may not arrive until 2027, noting that demand is high within this cycle, but industry supply remains limited.

As ijiwei suggests, Xiaomi has been climbing the smartphone value ladder, rolling out premium models like the Mi 17 series to boost profitability and take on Apple’s iPhone 17. In October, the company raised prices on the Redmi K90 flagship, partly due to rising memory costs, the report notes.

Meanwhile, South China Morning Post, citing Lu, notes that rising memory chip prices could squeeze smartphone vendors’ profits and hit domestic players in China hardest. Some companies will fall behind—or even exit the market, Lu reportedly cautioned.

Despite these pressures, Xiaomi reported stronger-than-expected quarterly results, with Q3 revenue up 22.3% to RMB 113.1 billion, and its electric vehicle unit posting a profit for the first time in a single quarter, according to ijiwei.

Rising memory and AP costs pressure Samsung
On the other hand, though soaring memory prices are boosting expectations for Samsung Electronics’ Device Solutions Division, the surge also threatens smartphone margins. According to Maeil Business Newspaper, if handset prices rise to offset higher component costs, the Mobile eXperience (MX) business could take a hit.

The report indicates Samsung is evaluating Galaxy S26 pricing ahead of its February launch. However, rising memory costs are compounded by a 25.5% year-on-year jump in Qualcomm application processor expenses—Samsung paid around 11 trillion won for APs in Q3—adding further pressure on production, according to Maeil. Reuters also noted that Samsung raised prices on certain memory chips by 30-60% this month.

Trendforce’s latest investigations reveal that while the global macroeconomic outlook for 2026 remains weak, the memory industry has begun a robust upward pricing cycle, increasing overall system costs. In response to these developments, TrendForce has lowered its 2026 global production forecasts for smartphones and notebooks. Smartphone output is now projected to decrease by 2% YoY, compared to an earlier estimate of a +0.1% increase. Meanwhile, notebook production is expected to shrink by 2.4%, down from a previous forecast of +1.7%.

Source: TrendForce, Taiwan.