Apple Warns of Price Hikes as AI Gobbles Up Memory Chips

Tim Cook dropped a bombshell in a recent interview: Apple will have to raise prices on its devices because the AI boom is consuming the world's supply of memory and storage chips. "Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable," Cook told reporters, adding that Apple has been "trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable."

The culprit is straightforward. AI companies are buying up enormous quantities of DRAM (memory) and NAND (storage) chips to power their server farms. Cook called out "high bandwidth memory" used in AI servers specifically, noting that "there's less supply at a time when consumers want devices and the memory guys are passing along huge price increases." Research firm Tech Insights estimates that passing these higher costs to consumers while maintaining Apple's profit margins would add roughly $270 to the price of the next iPhone Pro model.