Apple is reportedly moving away from its traditional procurement strategy of leveraging its market power to drive down storage chip prices. The company is now prioritizing stable NAND flash memory supply over aggressive price negotiations.
The long-term agreement is believed to be signed with Kioxia of Japan. While the official details regarding the scale and specific pricing terms of the deal have not been disclosed, market analysts view this as a response to tightening chip supplies caused by the growth of AI data centers.
Industry insiders suggest the agreement may span 3 to 5 years and could potentially lack a price ceiling. This approach mirrors the strategy used by SK Hynix, primarily in the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market, whereas traditional DRAM and NAND are typically managed through quarterly contracts.
