Samsung Is Reportedly Cutting Phone Production by Up to 30% Because Memory Got Too Expensive

Samsung would apparently rather sell fewer phones than sell them at a loss. According to Korean outlet Money Today, the company’s Mobile Experience division has told suppliers to cut smartphone production by 20 to 30 percent through the fourth quarter of 2026. The reason is the same one that has been pushing Galaxy prices up all fall: memory has become brutally expensive.

Samsung has not confirmed the cut. But the report, picked up by 9to5Google, Android Authority and Android Central on October 8, lines up with what U.S. buyers have already seen at the register.

What the report says

Money Today, citing multiple industry sources, says the reduction goes well beyond the usual year-end slowdown. Samsung always builds fewer phones in the fall, because buyers start waiting for the next Galaxy S launch in January or February. This year the drop is steeper than the market expected.

The line that got everyone’s attention came from an unnamed source who said Galaxy phones currently generate little to no profit once rising memory and semiconductor costs are counted. 9to5Google summed it up as phones that “yield no profit at all.” Read that as a statement about the lineup as a whole, not every single model. A Galaxy S26 Ultra or Galaxy Z Fold 8 almost certainly still makes money. A budget Galaxy A phone with a big RAM allotment is a much harder sell to the accounting department.

The memory math

Market tracker TrendForce, cited in the report, put the price of a 12GB LPDDR5X smartphone memory package at roughly $145 in the second quarter of 2026. That’s up about 175 percent from a year earlier. TrendForce expected another jump of around 20 percent in the third quarter, which would push that same 12GB package toward $180.

On a phone that sells for a few hundred dollars, that is a margin killer. AI data centers are soaking up memory supply, and phone makers are paying the difference.

The production numbers tell the rest of the story:

If output really lands near 200 million, Samsung would build roughly 40 million fewer phones than it did last year, when TrendForce had it roughly level with Apple as the world’s largest smartphone maker by volume.

What it means if you’re buying a Galaxy in the U.S.

You’ve already felt the first wave. On October 1, Samsung raised U.S. prices across the Galaxy S26 family by $100: the S26 went from $899 to $999, the S26+ from $1,099 to $1,199 and the S26 Ultra from $1,299 to $1,399. A production cut is the other lever. Fewer units means less inventory to discount, and Samsung can steer its limited supply toward the models that still pay for themselves.

Expect three things over the next few months:

• Thinner discounts on cheap Galaxy A models. Low-margin phones are the first ones a company stops pushing when each unit barely breaks even.
• More emphasis on premium phones. The S26 Ultra and the foldables are where Samsung still has room to absorb higher RAM costs.
• Pressure on Galaxy S27 pricing. A leak this week put the base S27 at $899, but memory prices that are still climbing make that number look fragile.

The bigger picture

Samsung isn’t the only phone maker paying more for memory. It’s just the biggest one to show its hand. There’s an irony here, too: Samsung is also one of the world’s largest memory chip makers, so the same price spike squeezing its phone division is a windfall for another part of the company.

For shoppers, the takeaway is simple. Fall Prime Day deals on Galaxy phones are live right now. If you’ve been holding out for a better price on a Samsung phone, this report is a good argument against waiting much longer.

Sources: 9to5Google, Android Authority, Android Central. Photo by Fotografia Lui Vlad on Unsplash.