Samsung's Cost Competitiveness Likely to Improve Further
Apple has reportedly given up its plan to purchase NAND flashes for the iPhone series from Yangtze Memory Technology (YMTC), a Chinese state-run semiconductor company, and instead will partner with Samsung Electronics.
Apple has scratched off its plan to purchase 3D NAND flashes from YMTC for iPhones to be sold in China, Taiwan's DigiTimes reported on Nov. 22. This is because YMTC is expected to be included in the U.S. government’s export control entity list.
Instead, Apple has decided to purchase NAND flashes from Samsung Electronics, which supplies DRAMs for iPhones, DigiTimes reported, quoting an industry insider. Samsung Electronics is expected to start manufacturing NAND flashes for iPhones beginning from 2023 at its Xian plant in China.
Samsung Electronics has been reluctant to sign a contract with Apple as the product that the U.S. tech giant wants to purchase from it is NAND flashes, not the high-value-added memory solutions that integrate self-developed controllers.
Samsung Electronics eventually gave up its position and decided to supply NAND flashes to Apple to increase its NAND flash market share and exhaust the inventory that has piled up due to sluggish consumption amid an economic downturn, analysts say.
Samsung Electronics’ supply of NAND flashes to Apple is expected to hit hard SK Hynix, an existing supplier of NAND flashes to Apple, and even Japan’s Kioxia and the United States’ Western Digital, as it will further improve Samsung Electronics' cost competitiveness.