Oppo and OnePlus are raising prices from March 16

"While the company hasn't provided an official reason for this price hike, or any indication of how much the prices will actually go up, it's easy to speculate that it all has to do with AI data centers being incredibly lucrative customers for memory chip makers, who are all shifting production away from DRAM and NAND flash chips used in smartphones in favor of HBM (high-bandwidth memory) that the AI data centers desperately need a lot of."

"This makes memory for smartphones more expensive, which in turn will inevitably drive prices for smartphones up, and the cheapest models will be affected the most, since their margins are the lowest to begin with. According to IDC, memory semiconductors now account for more than 20% of smartphone production costs, up from 10% to 15% previously. For entry-level devices, that's closer to 30%."

Oppo announced price increases for OnePlus models and its A and K series devices in China beginning March 16, while sparing higher-margin Reno and Find series phones and tablets. The price hikes stem from memory chip makers prioritizing AI data center demand for high-bandwidth memory over smartphone DRAM and NAND flash production. This supply shift increases memory costs, disproportionately affecting budget devices with lower margins. Memory semiconductors now represent over 20% of smartphone production costs, up from 10-15% previously, reaching approximately 30% for entry-level devices.

Read at GSMArena.com