Apple confirms iPhone, Mac and iPad prices will rise soon: AI chip shortage to drive cost hikes, Tim Cook c... - Bhaskar English

Apple has confirmed that iPhone, Mac, and iPad prices will rise soon due to rising costs of key components, primarily driven by a global shortage of memory and storage chips fueled by the AI boom. As ... Read original →

The AI boom is triggering stealth inflation in consumer electronics: HBM and advanced DRAM capacity is being vacuumed up by Nvidia and Microsoft, spiking Apple’s NAND and LPDDR5X costs on its 3nm platforms. This isn’t just a supply hiccup—it’s a fundamental reprioritization of the semiconductor stack, with AI infrastructure now commanding top allocation priority at foundries. Geopolitically, U.S.-led export controls on EUV tools from the Netherlands and Japan are delaying equipment deliveries, throttling mature-node expansion. While Samsung and SK Hynix rush HBM4, their ability to pivot consumer-grade memory output remains constrained, forcing Apple into long-term commitments and reduced legacy-model discounts. Over the next 12 months, premium Android devices will likely follow suit on pricing, but Macs—reliant on Taiwan, China-based foundries and U.S. memory—will see the fastest price transmission. Cook’s ‘hundred-year flood’ is really a structural squeeze: AI capex is systematically crowding out consumer hardware resources, shifting pricing power from end-users to upstream capacity owners.