CUPERTINO, June 28 -- Two weeks ago, Apple stood on a stage in Cupertino and told the world its most capable on-device AI model required 12 gigabytes of RAM. On Thursday, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo told the world the company's next mainstream iPhone will ship with nine.

The gap between those two numbers is the gap between what Apple is promising and what Apple is willing to pay for. Kuo, the supply-chain analyst whose hardware predictions have been among the most reliable in the industry for over a decade, reported that the iPhone 18 and iPhone 18e will carry 9GB of DRAM when they arrive in spring 2027. Not 12GB, as earlier rumors had widely predicted. Not even 10. Nine.

The configuration is unusual. Apple's A20 chip will use six 1.5-gigabyte...