Apple's price hikes signal a memory crunch no hardware maker can ignore

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is hoping to make things a bit easier by getting Intel to make chips in the US for Apple.

Apple will raise prices across its product line to offset surging memory and storage costs, chief executive Tim Cook told the Wall Street Journal, in the clearest sign yet that the AI-driven memory shortage has crossed from the data centre into consumer devices. The company is among the world's biggest buyers of memory, and its admission that it can no longer absorb the cost is a signal the rest of the hardware industry should read closely.

Cook did not soften the message, describing the squeeze as a "hundred-year flood" and saying he had not seen anything like it in more than four decades in the industry. "Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable," he told the paper, adding that Apple had tried to shield customers but that the situation had become unsustainable.

The cause sits upstream, in the same AI boom that the industry has spent the past year selling into. Hyperscalers racing to build AI data centres have bid up DRAM and high-bandwidth memory, and chipmakers are steering capacity toward the high-margin HBM that feeds AI servers. That leaves less commodity memory for the phones, laptops and consumer devices that depend on it, even as Apple needs to pack more DRAM into its products to run new on-device AI features.

The pricing fallout is already visible. Apple lifted the Mac mini's entry price from US$599 to US$799 in May by dropping its cheapest model, and Macs and iPads are tipped to be the first to carry higher tags. Research firm TechInsights estimates Apple would need to add roughly US$270 to the iPhone 18 Pro just to hold its current margin. Cook said Apple is willing to put its balance sheet to work to help expand supply, though he ruled out building memory factories of its own.

Apple is not acting in isolation, which is what broadens the story. Samsung, Microsoft, Sony and Dell have all raised hardware prices, with Microsoft's latest Surface models launching around 50 percent above their 2024 predecessors and the memory crunch cited as a central reason. That points to broad device-price inflation across the industry rather than a single-vendor adjustment, and to less room for anyone downstream to shield buyers from the increases.

There is an Asia-Pacific edge to the story too. The "memory guys" Cook referred to are largely Asian suppliers, and China's domestic makers remain difficult for US firms to source from under national-security licensing rules. Asked whether those restrictions should ease, Cook said "everything needs to be on the table" and that all supply options deserved a look, a notable position from a chief executive who rarely wades into export policy.

The next markers to watch are close. Apple's fiscal third-quarter earnings call, expected around 30 July, should force more detail on margins and timing, and the September iPhone 18 launch will be the first real test of how much of the memory bill lands on buyers.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is hoping to make things a bit easier for Apple. In a social media post on Truth Social, the President stated that Intel has struck a deal with Apple to start producing computer chips in the United States.

“I decided to help Intel because we need to design and build our Chips right here in America,” Trump wrote in a social media post on Truth Social.