Samsung couldn’t manufacture all the RAM for the Galaxy S26, here’s who helped them

Just hours before the official debut of the new flagship lineup, significant technical details about Samsung’s supply chain have emerged.

Despite the Korean company being one of the world’s leading semiconductor manufacturers, for the launch of the new Galaxy S26, S26+ and S26 Ultra it had to implement a diversification strategy regarding RAM.

The mobile division of the South Korean conglomerate has, in fact, chosen to complement its internal production with that of a prominent external partner, outlining a prudent and calculated approach.

Samsung Galaxy S26, a shared RAM-supply strategy

According to the latest industry rumors, the first batches of the new smartphones include LPDDR5X DRAM modules sourced equally from two distinct sources: Samsung’s semiconductor division (Samsung DS) and the American Micron.

The split between the two suppliers currently stands at a share close to 50%. While the Galaxy S26 and S26+ models maintain a standard RAM configuration of 12 GB, the Ultra variant offers 12 GB or 16 GB options, depending on the storage tier chosen.

Although Samsung MX, the mobile devices division, has not yet confirmed whether this distribution will remain unchanged for the entire product life cycle, observers expect that the dual-sourcing arrangement will continue to ensure production continuity.

The economic reasons and the AI market

The decision not to rely solely on internal production stems from a market context that has been particularly strained. In recent months, memory prices have surged due to the massive demand coming from AI-focused data centers.

Giants like Google, Amazon and Nvidia are absorbing large volumes of components, reducing global availability.

Choosing Micron as a strategic partner, which recently withdrew from the consumer market, allows Samsung to protect itself from potential bottlenecks in production and, at the same time, to maintain greater bargaining power over costs, attempting to preserve profit margins in a period of strong technological inflation.

The resurgence of Samsung DS

Compared with last year, the situation now appears more balanced. If for the previous generation Samsung had initially favored Micron memories due to slightly higher performance, the new LPDDR5X modules produced in-house have now reached the level of the competition.

This progress has allowed Samsung to reintroduce its own chips into about half of the initial production, reducing external dependence compared to the past.

In a market where even Apple-like entities must pay double prices to secure supplies, the mixed approach adopted for the Galaxy S26 represents a logistical move to prevent component cost increases from being reflected too heavily in the final price to the user.