According to SamMobile, Samsung’s mobile division head TM Roh will take the rare step of holding a high-level meeting at CES 2026 in Las Vegas. He’s scheduled to meet with Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra on the very first day of the show, January 6. The report states Samsung made an “urgent request” for this sit-down to discuss securing LPDDR5X RAM for the upcoming Galaxy S26 series. This comes as memory prices have gone haywire, with the cost of a key 12GB module soaring from $33 earlier in 2025 to over $70 by November. Even though Samsung makes its own RAM, its internal chip division (Samsung DS) has reportedly shifted to tough quarterly negotiations with the mobile team instead of offering long-term deals.
The real story is Samsung vs. Samsung
Here’s the thing that’s wild about this. Samsung is one of the world’s biggest memory chip makers. Its own Device Solutions (DS) division produces the exact LPDDR5X RAM the Galaxy phones need. But apparently, that doesn’t mean diddly for TM Roh and the mobile team. They’re getting treated like any other customer, which now means haggling over prices every three months. That’s a brutal way to try and plan a global smartphone launch. So why would Samsung DS play hardball with its biggest in-house client? Simple: higher margins elsewhere. They’re reportedly more focused on pumping out expensive High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) for the insatiable AI chip market. That’s where the real money is right now. So TM Roh has to go hat-in-hand to a competitor, Micron, to make sure he can actually build his phones. It’s a stunning internal disconnect.
What it means for your next phone
Forget AI features or fancy cameras for a second. This scramble is about the most basic component in a phone. And it will almost certainly hit consumers in the wallet. When the cost of a core material doubles in less than a year, that gets passed on. We could be looking at more expensive Galaxy S26 models, or perhaps Samsung will try to absorb the cost and make less profit per device. Maybe they’ll get aggressive with base storage tiers to keep a starting price down. But something’s gotta give. It also shows how the AI gold rush is distorting the entire electronics supply chain. Factories making memory for things like industrial panel PCs and servers are prioritizing different, more lucrative chips. Suddenly, getting enough RAM for a smartphone isn’t a sure thing, even for the company that makes the RAM. That’s a precarious position for the entire industry.
A desperate CES mission
Let’s be clear: top executives like TM Roh do not typically do deal-making on the CES show floor. That event is for splashy keynotes and press tours. The real business happens in private suites weeks before or after. The fact that he’s flying to Vegas for a single meeting tells you everything. This isn’t a courtesy chat; it’s a supply chain emergency. Samsung Mobile is likely trying to lock in volume and price with Micron before their own internal division comes back with another painful quarterly quote. It’s a hedging strategy, and a public admission that they can’t rely on themselves. So the big question for 2026 isn’t just about phone specs. It’s whether Samsung can keep its own house in order while competing in a market that’s cannibalizing its parts.
