AI boom hands memory suppliers leverage over Apple, WSJ says

For years, Apple's procurement playbook was built on keeping suppliers in check. The Wall Street Journal recounts how Apple secured more than a fifth of global flash memory supply as the iPhone took off, and how Tony Blevins, its former component procurement chief, arranged back-to-back meetings so competing sales teams would cross paths and feel the heat of competition.

The tactics extended to order discipline: Apple would place orders at exceptionally low prices and cancel them when market prices fell, leaving suppliers with custom inventory they often had to deliver at a discount. Some suppliers tried to push back — SanDisk refused an additional supply request in 2015, and Western Digital in 2017 sought a fee for sales not committed to Apple — but the balance stayed tilted toward Apple until Blevins left in 2022.

What changed the equation was the AI boom. After flash memory prices slumped in 2023 as the pandemic work-from-home surge faded, AI demand sent them soaring, giving suppliers negotiating power they had not held before. TechInsights estimates Apple will spend four times as much in 2026 for roughly the same volume of flash memory, a shift supplier sales staff are said to quietly welcome.