If Apple’s next generation of high-end smartphones should indeed be officially unveiled on schedule at the start of the school year, the volumes available at launch risk melting away before your eyes. An indirect victim of the AI boom, the Cupertino firm is facing heavy tensions over the supply of RAM for its Pro and Ultra models.
You already know this: the runaway growth of data centers tied to AI now monopolizes the global stock of random-access memory, severely affecting other parts of the consumer electronics industry... such as the flagship products of the iPhone range.
DRam shortage: the iPhone 18 range directly affected
And this crisis should therefore hit Apple for its new batch of smartphones, which will be unveiled in September: iPhone 18 Pro, Pro Max, and the foldable iPhone Ultra. Indeed, the company is having trouble getting its hands on enough DRam components to complete all of the initially planned production.
1 billion dollars’ worth of chips waiting at TSMC
This is what semiconductor specialist analyst Tim Culpan reveals, specifying that the Taiwanese foundry TSMC is currently stockpiling $1 billion worth of processors that require this DRam to be completed. The new A20 Pro chips in the new iPhones indeed require the memory to be integrated into the cell itself, and they therefore cannot be integrated into the smartphones as long as the DRam is not fixed.
Longer restocking delays ahead
Apple and its assemblers estimate that initial demand can be met, but that it will take longer than usual to replenish stock.