Samsung sees more pain for your phone prices in the near future

Mobile devices have become more expensive over the past year largely due to the rising demand for memory chips, driven by AI hyperscalers who are paying whatever the memory makers like Samsung are demanding.

Despite record-high prices for memory chips, there's still no slowdown in demand, and Samsung projects that the memory chip crisis will continue for the foreseeable future.

Samsung Electronics released its quarterly earnings earlier this week, posting nearly a nine-fold jump in quarterly profit which was driven primary due to the rising prices for memory chips.

The company said in a statement that it expects AI infrastructure capital expenditure, which includes the purchase of memory chips, to reach “a historic level,” with demand for chips far exceeding the industry supply in comparison to 2026.

Simply put, this means that AI companies will continue to buy memory chips at whatever price companies like Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron will sell them. This leaves fewer memory chips for consumer products, which will be more expensive for device manufacturers like Samsung, Apple, and others to procure.

Those companies will have little choice but to pass on the increases to you, the end consumer, even as the prices for most major product lines have already crept up by several hundred dollars this year.