Galaxy Z Fold 8 is selling too fast for Samsung to keep up

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 has been a surprising hit, and Samsung was not fully prepared for its success. The phone helped break pre-order records in several countries and regions, even shattering the all-time high previously held by the Galaxy Note 10.

Because Samsung could not accurately gauge the initial demand for the Galaxy Z Fold 8, the company had to ramp up manufacturing. However, it is now reportedly facing a severe shortage of display driver integrated circuits (DDIs) for the new foldable.

The phone's DDIs are designed by Samsung's in-house System LSI division and manufactured by Taiwan's United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) on its 22nm process node. UMC's production capacity for manufacturing these DDIs has reached its limit, and the company cannot produce the chips any faster.

Samsung requested the Taiwanese firm to expedite a “super hot run” service, but even that cannot match Samsung's current needs. As a result, the South Korean tech giant plans to repurpose DDI stock originally secured for next year's product development and apply it directly to current mass production.

Unlike general-purpose DRAM chips that can be dynamically allocated across several smartphone models, DDIs are custom-built for each specific device.

Standard wafer processing for DDIs takes around four months. Once the wafers are processed, they are combined with OLED panels made by Samsung Display before the final display assembly is delivered to Samsung MX. Consequently, DDIs have become a major manufacturing bottleneck.

In contrast to the Galaxy Z Fold 8, the Galaxy Z Flip 8 is reportedly seeing lower-than-expected demand.

The first real test for the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra will arrive in the form of Apple's first foldable iPhone, which is rumored to be called the iPhone Ultra. It could be announced on September 9, 2026, during Apple's press event, and might go on sale later this year.