With the trade war escalating between China and the United States, Apple finds itself between a rock and a hard place. The US isn't just Apple's home market, it's also the biggest, so any disruption to the supply of its iPhones and other products there is going to cost the company a lot of money.

On the other hand, China is where the vast majority of iPhones are produced, the country that's been hit with tariffs of over 140%. Even though a tariff exemption on smartphones has helped the company in the interim, Apple is not taking any chances are ramping up iPhone production quickly, and that's going to be good for Samsung.

Apple has reportedly revised its second quarter production targets for iPhone and iPad upwards by 15% as it seeks to stock up on inventory to limit tariff shocks. It wants to bring over as many iPhones as possible to the United States before there's any detrimental change in the tariff regime imposed on China.

If it's making more iPhones then Apple needs to buy more components from its suppliers. Samsung Display is a big supplier of OLED display panels to Apple. Some market analysts believe that more than 40% of Samsung Display's revenue comes from Apple alone.

Samsung Display has the capability and the capacity to ramp up its display panel production in line with Apple's demands, perhaps even more so than some of the other display providers in Apple's supply chain.

The company thus stands to benefit from the ramp up in Apple's production as it would be able to sell more components. Apple can ill-afford a situation where it has to significantly hike up iPhone prices in the United States due to the tariffs. By some estimates, the iPhone 16 Pro Max could end up costing nearly $3,000 if the relief provided is pulled back.

With so many changes being made to the tariff policy seemingly overnight, it's evident why Apple's playing it safe and doing the only logical thing, which has a trickle down effect for suppliers like Samsung Display.