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iPhone 18 Series to Reportedly Get US Made Camera Sensors From Samsung

iPhone 18 Series to Reportedly Get US-Made Camera Sensors From Samsung

Samsung is reportedly looking for project managers who will oversee the production of CIS for the iPhone 18 series.

Written by Akash Dutta, Edited by Rohan Pal | Updated: 26 December 2025 12:11 IST

iPhone 18 Series to Reportedly Get US-Made Camera Sensors From Samsung

The iPhone 17 series and the iPhone Air are equipped with the IMX-series CIS made by Sony

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Highlights

Samsung is said to start CMOS image sensor production in March 2026
So far, Sony exclusively manufactured CIS for Apple’s iPhone
It is said that the CIS will be used for the iPhone 18 Pro models

iPhone 18 series could reportedly be the first in many generations to get camera sensors that are made in the US. As per the report, Apple will get a share of the components from Samsung next year, which will be manufactured in the company's Austin plant in Texas. While the manufacturing site is not new, this is the first time the company will reportedly develop camera sensors there. Notably, so far, these sensors were exclusively made by Sony in Japan.

iPhone 18 Models to Reportedly Benefit From Apple's Supplier Expansion

According to The Elec, Samsung will soon install the production equipment to fabricate the complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors, otherwise known as CIS, in its Austin plant. The South Korean tech giant is said to have placed job listings for mechanical and electrical project managers for the fab.

This development is noteworthy given that Apple is expanding its camera component suppliers for the iPhone 18 series by including Samsung alongside Sony. For the past few generations, Sony has been making these components exclusively at its Japan plant, which are then assembled by Foxconn, Luxshare and others. This year, a share of these productions is moving to Samsung and will be manufactured entirely in the US.

Apple May Unveil iPhone Air 2 Earlier Than Expected

It is not clear whether Apple will use these components for the Pro and purported Fold models or across the entire series, including the vanilla iPhone 18, which will reportedly be launched separately in 2027 spring, alongside the purported iPhone 18e. However, a 9to5Google report claims that the Samsung-made CIS might exclusively be used for the Pro models, given their expensive pricing.

The South Korean outlet reported that Samsung is manufacturing a wafer-to-wafer hybrid bonding for the CIS, where three wafers are stacked together. This structure is said to reduce noise in images while maintaining a smaller pixel size. As per The Elec, production at the Austin facility could begin as soon as March 2026.

This development is important since the major iPhone components have historically been manufactured outside of the US, so far. Some exceptions include the cover glass for iPhone displays (Corning's Kentucky plant), vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser or VCSEL (Sherman's Texas plant), some integrated circuits and analogue chips (sourced from Texas Instruments, GlobalFoundries), and rare-earth magnets for speakers and haptics.

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Further reading: iPhone 18, Apple, Samsung

Akash Dutta Email Akash Dutta

Akash Dutta is a Chief Sub Editor at Gadgets 360. He is particularly interested in the social impact of technological developments and loves reading about emerging fields such as AI, metaverse, and fediverse. In his free time, he can be seen supporting his favourite football club - Chelsea, watching movies and anime, and sharing passionate opinions on food. More