In what might well turn out to be a watershed moment for the smartphone sphere at large as it continues to contend with a full-blown memory chip crisis, Qualcomm is now reportedly working with China's CXMT to develop custom mobile-centric memory solutions, hoping to ease the chronic bottlenecks that have nearly paralyzed the global mobile industry.
Qualcomm and China's CXMT are now reportedly working together to create custom mobile-focused DRAM
Back in February, Qualcomm had conceded during its earnings call that while the "majority" of DRAM that goes with Qualcomm's SoCs is purchased directly by its customers, the chip designer was "among the first to be qualified with every memory provider."
Fast forward just a couple of weeks, and JoongAng Ilbo has come forward with a bombshell: Qualcomm is directly working with China's CXMT, which specializes in producing DRAM, to develop custom memory chips for mobile phones.
As most of our readers would know by now, the global mobile industry is currently contending with a chronic DRAM shortage as most of the associated fabrication capacity has been allocated towards producing the more lucrative High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) for AI-related workloads.
What's more, as we reported recently, these memory-led pricing pressures are hitting the entry-level and mid-tier smartphone segments particularly hard, especially given their limited pricing-related maneuverability. Consider the fact that DRAM costs now make up a whopping 35 percent of the Bill of Materials (BOM) of a given entry-level handset, while NAND costs add another 19 percent. Together, these two components now make up a whopping 54 percent of a budget smartphone's total cost.
This comes as both MediaTek and Qualcomm appear to have slashed their production cadence for 4nm chips, which feature prominently in low and mid-tier smartphones. As such, this production curtailment currently equates to around 20,000 to 30,000 wafers, which corresponds to a volume of between 15 million and 20 million mobile chips.
Against this backdrop, it makes sense for Qualcomm to try to develop custom memory solutions with CXMT to salvage its order cadence. Of course, most of these memory chips will likely only go into Chinese smartphones.
About the author: 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.
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