Memory has become the single most expensive part inside a smartphone, according to Nothing co-founder and CEO Carl Pei, who posted the claim publicly on X on 12 June 2026. He used the Nothing Phone 4A as a concrete example, citing specific cost movements in the device's bill of materials — the running tally of what each component costs to manufacture.

Pei's post described a cost surge that will feel familiar to anyone who has watched memory markets cycle through periods of scarcity in the past. The numbers he cited are striking: the memory cost for the Phone 4A doubled between the design phase and launch. It then doubled again after the device hit stores. That amounts to a fourfold price increase across a single product's lifespan — an entire commodity cycle compressed into one model.

The practical outcome is clear. When a component doubles and then doubles again while a product is already selling, a manufacturer faces three choices: absorb the cost hit internally, raise the retail price mid-cycle, or build the cost into the next generation. For a company like Nothing — which has positioned itself on offering good value compared to Samsung and Apple — none of those options is easy.

Pei did not say in his post whether Nothing has already changed prices or plans to. By making the cost data public, he reframed any future price increase from a brand decision into a supply-chain fact. That is a deliberate communications tactic: establish the supply constraint in the public record before changing the price tag.

The broader memory market picture supports where Pei is pointing. DRAM and NAND flash — the two main types of memory in phones — have historically been among the most volatile commodity markets in consumer electronics, swinging sharply based on how much manufacturing capacity companies build, how well that capacity performs, and sudden surges in demand. The current rush to build AI and machine-learning infrastructure has introduced a new demand factor that did not exist in earlier cycles. High-bandwidth memory and advanced DRAM variants are being pulled hard by data centers and AI features running directly on phones. Smartphone makers are now competing for factory capacity with the large cloud companies like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon.

One important note: Pei's post is a single account from an interested party, and he has not released the underlying cost details or named specific suppliers. His claim that memory is now the costliest line item — ahead of the processor, display, or camera — is significant. It is plausible given current market prices, but without corroboration from other phone makers or supply-chain analysts, it should be read as Nothing's internal cost picture rather than an industry-wide figure.

Still, the directional movement is credible. Memory's portion of what a smartphone costs to build has been climbing for years as phones ship with more memory — driven by camera features that need temporary storage space, AI models that need to live on the device, and people expecting to run more apps at once. A mid-range phone today with 8 or 12 gigabytes of advanced DRAM carries considerably more memory than a high-end phone did five years ago. More capacity at higher per-gigabyte prices adds up fast.

For product teams and purchasing departments at other Android phone makers: if Pei's cost curve holds beyond Nothing's specific supplier deals, the industry may be approaching a point where memory alone forces a reckoning in how to price mid-range devices. Either specifications have to shrink, or prices have to rise. Either way, it is a squeeze on the segment that has driven smartphone sales growth worldwide over the last three years.

The longer question is whether the demand for AI features on phones — which need more memory and faster storage — will keep pushing these costs higher or eventually level off. Right now, the pressure is still climbing. The same market forces that make AI a selling feature are making the hardware to run it more expensive. That tension is not resolved by a CEO's social media post, but Pei has put a concrete figure on it.