Apple Is In For A Sticker Shock In Q3, With LPDDR5X DRAM Costs Surging By $68.8 In A Single Quarter, As Operating Profit Margin For General-Purpose DRAM To Hit 90% Within The Year Rohail Saleem • at EDT Add on Google The standard A21 could stick with TSMC's N2 With an ecosystem of over 1.5 billion devices worldwide, Apple has historically enjoyed a heretofore unprecedented leverage with its supply chain partners. Yet, as the ongoing DRAM squeeze shows no sign of abating, Apple's leverage has largely become impotent, setting the stage for an atypical outcome where LPDDR5X modules are now dictating Cupertino-based tech giant's product roadmap and pricing. Apple's per-unit costs for 12GB LPDDR5X modules are expected to have surged by $68.8 between the Q1 and Q2 of 2026 Apple used to secure memory chips via 1-year or even longer contracts, winning hefty discounts relative to the prevailing market price of the time. No longer. Apple now negotiates memory prices quarterly, with its focus shifting away from bargains to securing enough supply for its ever-expanding product portfolio. Related Story Apple Will Equip The Outer Panel Of The iPhone Ultra With Samsung’s Cutting-Edge, Natively 10-Bit M16 OLED, While Retaining The Older M14 OLED For The Inner ScreenConcurrently, DRAM prices have been on a relentless and unprecedented tear lately. SemiAnalysis reported towards the tail-end of Q1 and into Q2 2026 that LPDDR5 contract prices were hovering at around $10/GB ($120 for a 12GB LPDDR5X chip) at the time after undergoing a 3x increase since Q1 2025. Let me tell you why Apple is so eager to raise prices, and why it may not even want to wait until the iPhone 18 Pro launches.Just look at the memory pricing data.For LPDDR5X 96Gb (12GB) memory:Q1 price: $77.1Q2 forecast: $145.9Increase: $68.8Growth rate: 89%, nearly… pic.twitter.com/OLAw5D4caI— Ice Universe (@UniverseIce) June 23, 2026 Since then, however, these pricing pressures have only become more extreme, with Sigmaintell now disclosing that the cost of an LPDDR5X 96Gb (12GB) memory chip has surged from $77.1 in Q1 2026 to $145.9 in Q2 2026, corresponding to an increase of $68.8 or 89 percent in a single quarter! This aligns with a separate estimate from TechInsights, which disclosed recently that Apple is now likely procuring 12GB LPDDR5X memory chips at around $145 per unit. It's hardly a surprise, therefore, that Apple is preparing for a sticker shock heading into Q3, and is laying the groundwork for increasing the prices of its iPhone 17 lineup, potentially as soon this month, with Tim Cook having already declared that price hikes have become "unavoidable." This paradigm is now leading to an aberrant situation where commodity DRAM now entails a 15 percent higher operating profit margin for memory chip makers than what AI-focused High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) modules entail. What's more, Daishin Securities now estimates that the operating profit margin on general-purpose DRAM could reach "a theoretical peak of 90% within the year." BERNSTEIN: Global Memory> Analysts forecast a 2-2.5x increase in HBM Average ASP year-over-year (YoY) heading into 2027. This price hike is expected across all generations of HBM (HBM3, HBM3E, HBM4, etc.).> DRAM industry prices are forecasted to continue rising after 2QCY26… pic.twitter.com/Uo3KUJuDgL— P Equity Research 📰 (@pequityresearch) June 22, 2026 Bernstein is also now echoing these profit margin projections, and does not expect commodity DRAM prices to peak until well into 2027. In the meantime, Apple's margins are in for a historic squeeze, one that is now spurring projections that Apple will price the base storage variant of its upcoming iPhone 18 Pro at an eye-watering ~$1,400, with the corresponding Pro Max variant possibly hitting the shelves at around $1,500! About the : Writing is my one incontrovertible passion. Over the past six years, he has authored over 2,200 distinct articles on financial and tech-related topics, spanning nearly 1 million words. And he has been a member of Wcctech mobile team since 2025. As an alumnus of the University of Toronto, Rotman Commerce Program, I bring nuance, in-depth knowledge, and a unique perspective to every topic that I cover. When I'm not writing, I'm traveling the world, exploring hidden confectionaries and restaurants as an aspiring food connoisseur. Follow on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds. 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