For Years, Apple Acquired DRAM And Flash Storage For Under $40 But Charged $99 For The Upgrade, Now It’s About To Pay ~$200 For The Combo And Crying Out For Aid https://wccftech.com/for-years-apple...g-out-for-aid/

How the tables appear to have turned for Apple, which used to command absolute obeisance from its supply chain, leading to obscene margins, but now finds itself displaced by the AI hyperscalers in the supply chain hierarchy, and so starts calling for aid from the Chinese. Cue in the idiom: how the mighty have fallen.

Back in 2023/2024, Apple typically paid around $17 for an 8GB LPDDR5X RAM, and another $22 for a 256GB flash storage module, netting out the total memory-related costs to $39.

At the time, Apple used to charge around $99 for upgrading to the next storage tier, earning a veritable windfall on these pricing dynamics.
For the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro, however, Apple will pay around $145 for a 12GB DRAM, which equates to $12 for every 1GB of DRAM or $96 for an 8GB DRAM module. It will also pay $51 for a 256GB flash storage module, bringing its total memory-related costs to $196.

This means that Apple's margin-related gravy train on memory has ended for all practical purposes, which might explain its tangible panic right now, as illustrated by its across-the-board price hikes for Macs, iPads, and the Vision Pro, while also exhorting the Trump administration to unban China's DRAM giant, CXMT.