Apple has announced price increases across its MacBook and iPad product lines, attributing the hikes to a surge in memory and storage costs driven by the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence infrastructure.
The increases, ranging from $30 to $300 on the US website, mark the first concrete pricing changes following repeated warnings from outgoing CEO Tim Cook about rising component costs. Apple shares fell more than 4.7 percent in morning trade following the announcement.
Among the products affected, the 14-inch MacBook Pro rose from $1,700 to $2,000, the iPad Air increased from $600 to $750, and the Apple TV streaming device climbed from $130 to $200. The iPhone, Apple’s primary revenue driver, was not affected by the current round of increases.
“The rapid expansion of AI data centers has created an extraordinary surge in demand for memory and storage,” an Apple spokesperson said. “We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly.” The company said it had absorbed the rising costs for as long as possible but could no longer shield customers from them.
The backdrop to the increases is a broader crisis in the memory chip market. The buildout of AI data centers has driven quarterly price increases of at least 50 percent for memory chips and RAM since late 2025, with the components found across virtually all electronic devices. Cook last week described the situation to the Wall Street Journal as a “hundred-year flood,” calling price increases “unavoidable.”
“There’s less supply at a time when consumers want devices and the memory guys are passing along huge price increases,” Cook said.
Apple recorded an all-time revenue record of $416 billion in its last fiscal year. The company’s incoming CEO John Ternus, who takes over from Cook on September 1, will inherit the pricing fallout just days before the next generation of iPhones is expected to be unveiled.
