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Memory Chip Shortage Squeezes Samsung, Apple Through 2028

02 Aug 2026

The squeeze is on—and it's not over

A global memory chip shortage is reshaping pricing and profitability across the consumer hardware industry, with effects expected to worsen through 2027 and persist until at least 2028. Samsung and Apple have both raised device prices in response to climbing component costs, and early data suggests consumers are starting to push back.

What's happening

Samsung, which supplies roughly a third of the world's memory chips, has raised prices on its Galaxy smartphones and tablets. But the move has come at a cost: demand for those devices has already dropped, and profitability in Samsung's own smartphone and TV divisions has shrunk as higher-priced chips inflate component costs.

Meanwhile, Samsung's semiconductor unit posted all-time high sales in Q2—suggesting that even as device-making arms feel the pain, the chip-supply side of the business is capturing real financial upside from tight conditions. The company also said frontier AI labs have been sharing medium- to long-term demand forecasts directly with Samsung to help secure future chip supply, a sign that AI infrastructure buildout may be adding structural, long-term pressure to memory demand.

Apple raised prices on its MacBooks, Macs, and iPads last month and has projected its revenue growth for the upcoming quarter will slow to 9%-11% year-over-year, down from a recent 16% growth rate. The report does not establish how much of this slowdown is directly tied to component costs versus other factors, and no specific figures on how the price hikes have affected Apple's own device demand are available—an open question given the parallel drop in demand Samsung has already experienced.

Nvidia is also expected to raise consumer graphics card prices by 20% to 30%, adding another data point to a hardware ecosystem broadly absorbing higher costs.

Why founders should care

  • Hardware and AI-infrastructure startups should likely brace for extended cost volatility. With shortages projected to persist into 2028, component pricing is unlikely to stabilize soon, and founders building physical products or AI hardware should plan budgets accordingly.
  • Price increases may not be a safe pass-through. Samsung's experience—where raising prices coincided with a drop in device demand—suggests founders considering similar moves should model demand elasticity rather than assume customers will absorb cost increases without pushback.
  • Margins across the hardware stack may come under sustained pressure. Samsung's device divisions saw profitability shrink even as its chip-supply arm hit record sales, a pattern that could plausibly repeat at other companies balancing component costs against consumer pricing.
  • Early supply commitments could become a competitive edge. AI labs proactively sharing long-term demand forecasts with Samsung hints that securing supply agreements early may increasingly separate well-positioned AI-dependent companies from those scrambling later.

What's still unclear

The report leaves some gaps worth flagging. It's not clear how much of Apple's slowing growth projection is actually driven by component costs versus other factors, and there's no data yet on how Apple's own price increases have affected demand for its devices—a contrast to the clearer demand-drop signal seen at Samsung. Similarly, the exact relationship between AI labs' forecasting requests and broader consumer device pricing and supply remains undetailed.

The bottom line

For founders operating anywhere near the hardware supply chain—whether building devices directly or relying on AI infrastructure with heavy memory demands—the current shortage is likely to remain a live cost and planning issue well into 2027 and 2028, not a short-term blip to wait out.

Sources