A surge, dubbed by some experts as ‘RAMageddon’, has been driven by a boom in AI data center construction
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Apple has announced significant price rises for its iPad and MacBook lines, claiming an inability to shield consumers from the escalating costs of memory and storage chips. The rising expenses are largely attributed to the artificial intelligence (AI) industry's burgeoning demand for data centre infrastructure.
While the price adjustments do not extend to Apple's iPhone range, they impact its more accessible offerings. For instance, the starting price of its low-cost laptop, aimed at competing with affordable Windows and Chromebook devices, has risen from from $599 to $699 months after launch. This move underscores that even the world's most valuable consumer electronics company, renowned for its robust supply chain, is susceptible to the memory price surge that has dampened the outlook for smartphone and PC sales. Memory manufacturers, including Micron, have recently prioritised orders from AI chipmakers such as Nvidia, contributing to record profits for these suppliers. However, this shift has left a limited supply for electronics producers, compelling them to pass on increased costs to consumers.
Apple hiked the price of MacBook Air with 512 gigabytes of storage to $1,299 from $1,099, while the MacBook Pro with 1 terabyte of storage rose to $1,999 from $1,699, according to updated prices on its website. The iPad Air with 128 gigabytes of storage rose from $599 to $749, among other changes.
"We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly," Apple said in a statement. "We have shielded our customers from these increases so far, but we have now reached a point where we need to begin raising prices on a number of products, including today's increases for iPad and Mac."
The company said in April existing inventories had helped it keep its gross margins above Wall Street expectations but that rising memory costs would start to catch up by the end of this month, with profitability expected to fall slightly.
"We expect significantly higher memory costs," CEO Tim Cook said on a conference call with analysts in late April.
"Where we don't give color beyond June, I can tell you that beyond the June quarter, we believe memory costs will drive an increasing impact on our business," Cook had said.
Apple has not disclosed what steps besides price hike it has taken to address rising memory costs. The company said on Thursday, "We know this is not welcome news, and we are working tirelessly to find solutions."
Prices of dynamic random access memory, used in virtually all modern tech gadgets, rose as much as 98% in the first quarter of 2026 and is set to jump by another 58% to 63% in the current quarter, according to industry tracker TrendForce.
That surge, dubbed by some experts as "RAMageddon", has been driven by a boom in AI data center construction, with companies like Nvidia signing long-term deals with memory makers who are racing to increase capacity.
Micron said on Wednesday it has locked in $22 billion in such long-term commitments from customers looking to secure their memory supplies.
The rising costs are expected to weigh heavily on device sales this year, with research firm IDC estimating that the smartphone market would see its biggest-ever annual decline of nearly 14% this year while the PC market will fall 11.3%.
Among the notable bright spots has been the MacBook Neo launched in March, which helped power Apple's strong sales forecast for the June quarter and has even led some industry watchers to revise their estimates for PC sales.
With its increased price, it has now lost a $100 advantage over the $699 XPS 13 laptop that Dell unveiled last month especially to take on the Neo, while also making it more expensive than some Chromebooks from Lenovo and Asus.
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