Apple just announced unprecedented price increases for the majority of its product line, with only the iPhone and Apple Watch yet to see a price increase. This is due to the AI-driven memory crisis, caused by AI data centers purchasing a large amount of memory supply, putting a lot of pressure on the market.
Apple tried to resist for quite some time, but the situation got out of control. It’s worth noting that these memory pressures have existed all year, and are only now reaching the point where they are unsustainable. However, we’ll delve deeper into why this is all happening and when you should expect things to improve.
Memory supply pressures
As described by outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook in an interview with The Wall Street JournalApple simply couldn’t maintain its current prices any longer with the sudden increases:
“Unfortunately, price increases are inevitable,” he said. “We are doing everything we can to mitigate the huge increases that are happening to us and have been trying to protect our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable.”
As mentioned above, this is exclusively due to the construction of gigantic AI data centers, which have put tremendous pressure on memory supply. For example, the price of 32GB of DDR5 memory has nearly quadrupled in the last year, and a 6000MHz kit that used to cost less than $90 now costs almost $400.
This is just to give an idea of consumer prices, which is not necessarily an apples-to-apples comparison. Apple uses high-end memory and it also costs extra due to the complexity that comes with soldering it into the chipset, rather than having it as a separate component.
Will it improve?
At some point, yes, it will get better, but it’s hard to say how long it will take.
Micron, a leading memory supplier, has started to build There are a couple of new memory factories in the US, and they are expected to start operating in the next two years, with the last one coming online in 2030. They are just one supplier, but any additional supply will be a big help.
Apple, for its part, has started a new lobbying effort to force the US government to allow them to do business with a handful of currently blacklisted Chinese memory suppliers. Technically, Apple is not prohibited from purchasing this memory, but it would be a huge problem for government officials who use Apple devices. If Apple had an additional memory supply that wasn’t highly sought after by AI hyperscalers, this could make a difference in the near future.
Otherwise, the main hope is simply that AI development will slow down. For now, things are likely to continue to get worse before they get better. In the third and fourth quarters of 2026, a quarter-on-quarter increase Growth of 30-50% is expected. Apple has already hinted that there may be further price increases in the future, although these may only relate to products that have not yet had price increases.
In general, I would say 2-4 years to expect, unless Apple is successful in its efforts to use Chinese memory. It will still be difficult, but maybe we can see some slight reductions if that works.
what can you do
At this point, all I can say is that if you want something new, it’s probably best to buy it now, and I would also recommend warning the people around you. Of course, if your device works well, don’t rush to upgrade just for a medium-term price increase.
Meanwhile, Amazon continues to sell existing Mac and iPad inventory at lower prices. These prices are not as low as on Prime Day, but they are still much lower than the new prices after the official increases. Below I will list some of the offers.
Waterproof:
- 13-inch MacBook Air (M5, 1TB SSD, 16GB RAM) – $1149 at Amazon (vs. $1599 at Apple)
- 15-inch MacBook Air (M5, 512GB SSD, 16GB RAM) – $1249 at Amazon (vs. $1,499 at Apple)
- 14-inch MacBook Pro (M5, 1TB SSD, 16GB RAM) – $1649 at Amazon (vs. $1999 at Apple)
- 14-inch MacBook Pro (M5 Pro, 1TB SSD, 24GB RAM) – $2149 at Amazon (vs. $2,499 at Apple)
- 16-inch MacBook Pro (M5 Pro, 1TB SSD, 24GB RAM) – $2649 at Amazon (vs. $2999 at Apple)
- MacBook Neo and Mac mini are not currently available on Amazon at the time of writing.
iPad:
It really sucks to see all these much higher prices, especially considering that Apple had largely become one of the best value options on the market over the past year. Of course, these price increases don’t happen in a vacuum, and the rest of the industry will also deal with the memory crisis.
My favorite Apple accessory recommendations:
Follow Miguel: X/Twitter, blue sky, instagram
FTC: We use automatic affiliate links that generate income. Further.
