Apple faces DRAM shortage ahead of iPhone 18 Pro launch

Apple and its suppliers are racing to secure mobile memory chips to complete production of its upcoming iPhone lineup, with a reported $1 billion worth of processors sitting idle at a key manufacturing partner due to the shortage. The company is working to meet anticipated September launches for the iPhone 18 Pro series and its first foldable iPhone, widely rumored to be called the iPhone Ultra, but the supply crunch threatens to quickly deplete initial retail stock and extend online delivery times.

According to semiconductor analyst Tim Culpan, the bottleneck stems from the new A20 Pro processor, Apple's first chip built on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's (TSMC) 2-nanometer manufacturing process. This chip utilizes a Wafer-Level Multi-Chip Module (WMCM) packaging technology that integrates the processor and DRAM memory at the wafer level. This means the packaging process cannot be completed without the corresponding DRAM, preventing unfinished dies from being stockpiled for later assembly. As a result, Culpan estimates TSMC is holding approximately $1 billion worth of unpackaged Apple processors awaiting the missing memory components.