Cristiano Amon says "industry-wide memory shortage and price increases" will curb smartphone sales

During Qualcomm’s February earnings briefing, chief executive Cristiano Amon warned that a pervasive scarcity of memory chips and climbing prices would shape the volume of smartphones sold this year, emphasizing that the shortage reverberates throughout the entire industry. His remarks echoed earlier alerts from other chip leaders who said that AI‑driven demand for high‑bandwidth memory has strained production capacity, leaving limited supply for traditional devices such as phones and PCs. The broader context includes a rapid expansion of data‑center construction in the United States, which has sparked local opposition over environmental concerns. Together, these factors illustrate how limited memory availability and cost pressures are influencing both consumer‑device markets and larger infrastructure projects.