苹果与「美光们」的权力再平衡：拆解iPhone背后的利润账单

Original｜Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

Author｜Wenser (@wenser2010 )

Have you ever wondered, when selling an iPhone, how much of the profit goes to each component supplier?

Recently, overseas tech blogger @BluthCapital, impersonating Micron's CEO, joked about the "business model" behind the iPhone: "For over a decade, Apple has been buying chips from us (MU) for $5, putting them in a metal box, and selling them to consumers for $99. When we tried to raise the price to $7, they went into mockery mode. But now, when we charge them $50, they raise the product price by $250." The post expressed considerable contempt for Apple's recent price hikes while blaming memory manufacturers.

The post quickly sparked discussion on social media. This morning, @BluthCapital continued the topic, sharing a cost structure breakdown for the iPhone 18 with specific numbers to support his point:

Previously, Micron's Chief Business Officer, Sumit Sadana, told the Wall Street Journal, "During the memory industry downturn, certain customers took advantage to push down prices, leading to negative profits for the company." Now, due to strong demand from the AI and tech sectors, the memory industry has become the party with the upper hand. This has led to a complete reversal of fortunes along the entire supply chain.

Profit Structure of an iPhone: Apple Takes Nearly 25%, Micron and Other Memory Makers Get Less Than 3%

Estimates suggest that Apple takes about a quarter of the profit from an iPhone, while memory giants take only about one-thirtieth. TSMC, due to its monopoly position, takes about 4%-5% of the profit. The remaining portion covers other hardware suppliers, distribution channels, R&D, and taxes.

Looking Back at Apple's Financial Reports: Net Profit Margin Consistently Above 24%, Capturing 75% of Industry Profits

According to data from Counterpoint and other agencies, Apple has long held nearly 50% of the operating profit in the global smartphone market. IDC data for 2025 shows that Apple, with an 18% market share, captured about 75% of the total industry profits.

Based on Apple's latest Q2 2026 data, iPhone revenue was $57 billion, net profit was $34 billion, and estimated shipments were about 61 million units. From this, we can deduce that Apple's net profit per iPhone is approximately $320-$340, with a net profit margin of 33%-36%.

Comparing financial data over the past five years, we can clearly see that iPhone revenue has been relatively stable. Net profit has gradually grown from around $94 billion in 2021 to about $112 billion in 2025. The net profit margin has remained relatively stable, typically around 25%.

Examining different models like the 2017 iPhone X, the 2023 iPhone 14 Pro, and the 2026 iPhone 17 series, their profit structures have evolved significantly due to changes in memory costs.

From iPhone X to iPhone 17: Memory Costs Have Doubled

The role of memory costs in the iPhone has gone through three historical phases: from "incidental components" at the beginning, to "important components," and now to "critical components."

2017 iPhone X Era: The "Incidental Component" Period for Memory

According to Counterpoint's teardown report data from that time, during the iPhone X era, thanks to its long-standing brand advantage and dominant position in the ecosystem, Apple's net profit margin approached 50%. Memory manufacturers like Samsung and SK Hynix accounted for only about 135-195 RMB in profit, approximately 1.6%–2.3% of the total selling price of 8,388 RMB.

This was the "weight" of memory in the iPhone X era: about 2% of the cost, making it one of the components Apple cared least about.

2023 iPhone 14 Pro Era: The "Important Component" Period for Memory

In 2023, the iPhone 14 series launched. Apple's material costs increased slightly. For the Pro model, the BOM (Bill of Materials) cost reached about $464 (approximately 3,170 RMB), accounting for nearly 40% of the selling price. However, Apple's net profit margin remained around 40%.

According to tech media reports from that time, the above data was for the 128GB version. The cost increase for higher memory capacity versions was not significant, but the selling price was much higher. This was a period when "camera and processor prices were rising," so the overall profit for the iPhone 14 Pro was 3.7% lower than the iPhone 13 Pro.

2026 iPhone 17 Era: The "Critical Component" Period for Memory

Fast forward to 2025-2026, the iPhone 17 series has become Apple's main product line. Memory costs have doubled compared to a few years ago. Currently, memory costs are estimated to account for 12%-15% of the BOM cost, around $60-$80.

In summary, the following table shows cost and memory cost share data for different iPhone models over time.

Notably, TrendForce data shows that in Q1 2026, the contract price for general-purpose DRAM surged by 93% to 98% quarter-over-quarter. Citigroup estimates that the average DRAM price will rise by 88% for the full year of 2026. This aligns with the overall trend of rising memory costs. This phenomenon has also drawn acknowledgement from Apple CEO Tim Cook and Elon Musk.

Tim Cook: Memory Price Hike is a Once-in-40-Years Event

On June 17, Apple CEO Tim Cook (Note by Odaily Planet Daily: He will step down as CEO this September and be succeeded by former Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, John Ternus) mentioned the cost pressure from memory price hikes in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. He said, "At a time when consumers need devices, supply has decreased, and memory manufacturers are passing on enormous price increase pressure. We absolutely need memory pricing and supply to return to reasonable levels for consumer products. That's the bottom line."

However, within less than a week, he quickly changed his tone.

On June 25, Cook again gave an interview to the Wall Street Journal, describing the cost shock as a "once-in-a-century flood." He said, "In over 40 years, I have never seen anything like this in any field." Subsequently, Apple announced price increases across its product lines, including Mac, iPad, HomePod, Apple TV, and Vision Pro.

Following the news, Apple's stock price fell 6%, erasing $263 billion in market value, marking its largest decline since April 2025.

Elon Musk: I Haven't Seen This Either

Cook's words also resonated strongly with Elon Musk. Recently, Musk also posted, "Cook told the Wall Street Journal this cost surge is something he’s 'never seen in any field in over 40 years.' Me neither. This is the most violent price jump I’ve ever seen."

Thank AI Data Centers and HBM – Memory Now Stands Tall

Looking closely at the "memory bull market" that started last year, the key driver remains the robust demand from the AI industry.

The industry generally estimates that compared to standard servers, each AI server requires 8 times more DRAM and 3 times more NAND flash memory.

Given this market demand, the three major memory giants – Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron – naturally allocate more advanced process capacity to high-profit HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) and high-end DDR5 products, proactively cutting back on consumer-grade production lines like DDR4, thus leading to a shortage of general-purpose DRAM.

Public data shows that a single AI server requires 8 to 10 times the DRAM of a traditional server. Combined with restocking needs for general-purpose servers and the growing demand from AI PCs, the supply-demand gap for memory chips continues to widen.

Micron's astonishing Q3 gross margin of 84.6% and its year-over-year revenue growth of 346% to $41.46 billion have shown many the immense profit-generating power of a monopolistic memory manufacturer. On the other side, SK Hynix recently announced plans for a US listing, seeking to raise approximately $29 billion to further capitalize on memory demand.

It's no exaggeration to say that memory demand from the AI industry is squeezing and even cannibalizing the memory supply for consumer electronics. Statistics show that a single Nvidia Vera Rubin AI server uses as much memory as approximately 14,500 MacBook Neos. This 1:14,500 ratio highlights the severe supply-demand imbalance in the memory market.

For memory manufacturers who have long suffered from price pressure by giants like Apple, this is their moment. It's no wonder there were reports that Apple is actively lobbying the Trump administration, hoping to get approval to purchase memory chips from Chinese chipmaker CXMT.

Whether CXMT can replicate the wealth-creation miracles seen by star companies like SK Hynix and Micron in the capital markets, the answer might be revealed next month.

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