Memory Chip Shortage Cripples Chinese Smartphone Makers, Boosting Samsung - Seoul Economic Daily

The ongoing global memory chip shortage continues to intensify, severely impacting Chinese smartphone manufacturers. According to Seoul Economic Daily, Chinese mobile phone manufacturers are facing pr... Read original →

This memory shortage stems not from transient mismatches but from surging demand for LPDDR5 and UFS 3.1 in 5G handsets colliding with lagging mature-node capacity expansion. Chinese smartphone makers, lacking captive memory supply, are deprioritized as TSMC and Micron allocate wafers to Apple and Samsung. Technically, this forces domestic OEMs to adopt local NAND controllers—but DRAM remains a critical gap. U.S. export controls on advanced packaging equipment further raise China’s supply chain security costs. Samsung exploits its IDM dominance to lock premium clients and pressure mid-tier rivals via pricing power. Over the next 12–24 months, unless CXMT achieves volume production at 1α-node DRAM, Chinese brands may face sustained cost inflation or retreat to lower-end segments, cementing a bifurcated global memory landscape.