Samsung Electronics’ latest filing has put a price on the strain that the global memory shortage is placing on its smartphone business, even as the same market conditions drive record earnings at its semiconductor arm.
The average price that Samsung’s Device eXperience division paid for externally sourced mobile memory in the first half rose about 211 percent from the 2025 annual average, according to the company’s half-year report filed Friday. External purchases of mobile memory totaled 5.04 trillion won ($3.6 billion) over the six-month period.
The increase spiked in the second quarter. Mobile memory purchases reached about 3.05 trillion won, up 53 percent from 1.99 trillion won in the first quarter. The disclosed figures cover purchases from outside suppliers, including Micron Technology and Kioxia, and do not represent Samsung’s total mobile memory costs because transactions between Samsung’s own business divisions are eliminated in consolidated accounts.
Samsung’s semiconductor business has benefited from the opposite side of the same price cycle. The Device Solutions division’s average selling price for memory in the first half was about 220 percent higher than the 2025 annual average. At the end of the first quarter, the increase had been 146 percent.
The data provides new details on a split already visible in Samsung’s second-quarter earnings. DS reported record results as demand from AI data centers lifted sales of server memory. MX and Networks, which includes Samsung’s smartphone business, posted an operating loss of about 700 billion won in the quarter. The broader DX division recorded an operating loss of about 800 billion won.
Samsung said in July that higher component costs had weighed on DX profitability.
The pressure has grown as memory makers direct limited production capacity toward higher-margin products used in AI servers. Samsung said second-quarter DRAM and NAND bit shipments both reached record highs, while the share of server-related memory sales also hit a record.
For Samsung’s handset business, passing those higher costs on to consumers has been more difficult.
Counterpoint Research said Samsung’s smartphone shipments and revenue each rose 9 percent from a year earlier in the second quarter, while its average selling price was broadly flat. The global smartphone industry’s average selling price rose 17 percent over the same period as manufacturers raised prices to offset higher component costs.
Samsung nevertheless regained the top position in global smartphone shipments, with Counterpoint’s preliminary estimate putting its second-quarter share at 24 percent. The more affordable Galaxy A series helped sustain Samsung’s shipment volumes in price-sensitive markets.
By Moon Joon-hyun (mjh@heraldcorp.com)
