Korean Media: Apple's Request for Price Cut Rejected by Longsys, Samsung and SK Hynix Strengthen DRAM Negotiating Power

BlockBeats News, August 5th. According to South Korean news outlet Digital Daily, Apple recently negotiated with Yangtze Memory Technologies to lower the price of LPDDR5X and other mobile DRAM chips for the next generation of iPhone and smart devices. However, Yangtze Memory rejected Apple's further price reduction request. Yangtze Memory reportedly insisted on offering a price similar to or even higher than Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

Chinese companies such as Huawei and Xiaomi are securing Yangtze Memory's production capacity in advance through high-priced long-term contracts, allowing them to avoid accepting lower prices to compete for Apple's orders. With the tightening DRAM supply, the global end device manufacturers' strategy of leveraging China's low-cost components to drive down procurement prices is becoming ineffective.

As major memory manufacturers shift more capacity to HBM, the production capacity of general DRAM such as DDR5 and LPDDR5X is decreasing, leading to continuous price hikes for related products. Yangtze Memory is absorbing a significant amount of demand for general DRAM in the Chinese market, alleviating the pressure on Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix to sell low-priced products.

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are focusing their resources on high-value-added AI storage products such as HBM4, LPCAMM2, and enterprise SSDs. They are expected to gain stronger pricing power through long-term price negotiations with major global tech companies in the second half of this year.