Qualcomm And MediaTek Will Face New Challenges Next Year: 2nm And LPDDR6 Are Too Expensive

In addition to paying an additional premium next year for using TSMC's 2nm technology, Qualcomm and MediaTek are now having to deal with a surge in DRAM prices as they prepare to launch the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and Dimensity 9600 flagship chips next year. Rumor has it that only the flagship chipsets mentioned above will come with next-generation memory due to the increase in LPDDR6 RAM prices, but this is not expected to reduce the pressure on Qualcomm or MediaTek's smartphone partners.

Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 will come in two versions, but only one will support LPDDR6 RAM; MediaTek's Dimensity 9600 will stick to only one version.

According to the news from Weibo user "Digital Chat Station", only "Pro-level" chipsets will be shipped with LPDDR6 RAM chips next year. The rumor also hints that memory manufacturers in China are preparing to mass-produce the same DRAM technology next year, which could give Qualcomm and MediaTek's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and Dimensity 9600 some pricing negotiation chips.

For those who don't know, Qualcomm is said to be launching the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and a more top-of-the-line version, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro. As you know, there will be some differences between the two versions, and Digital Chat Station revealed that faster memory support and a faster GPU are two of the differences.

The rumor also mentions that memory prices will start to slow down in 2027, which means smartphones with Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 7 and Dimensity 9700 may become cheaper. While the increase in LPDDR6 RAM costs will adversely affect flagship devices in 2026, this is only a fraction of what Qualcomm and MediaTek are paying for TSMC's 2nm wafers.

With an estimated price of $30,000 per wafer, the two chipmakers will be forced to either lower their margins or force their smartphone partners to raise selling prices. As you can imagine, neither of these results is positive. There are also rumors that Qualcomm and MediaTek will take advantage of TSMC's slightly improved 2nm 'N2P' architecture, while Apple will continue to use the 2nm N2 architecture for the A20 and A2 Pro.

Although the N2P node only offers a 5% performance boost over the N2, Qualcomm and MediaTek want to gain an advantage over Apple, even if it means the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and Dimensity 9600 will be ridiculously expensive.