Apple could soon raise prices on its products as soaring memory and storage chip costs put increasing pressure on the company, CEO Tim Cook said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. The warning comes as booming AI investment fuels unprecedented demand for data centres, creating a supply crunch for critical memory components and driving costs sharply higher across the technology sector.
The rapid expansion of AI infrastructure has forced consumer electronics manufacturers into fierce competition for limited supplies of memory and storage chips. Industry groups representing automakers, retailers, electronics companies, and other sectors recently warned that the shortage could push up prices for U.S. consumers and disrupt supply chains. ‘Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable,’ Cook told WSJ. ‘We’re doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we’ve been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable.’
Cook, who is set to hand over the reins to John Ternus in September, did not say when any price increases might take effect or which Apple products could be affected. Apple is also reportedly preparing to unveil its first foldable iPhone in September alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, making the timing especially significant for consumers planning an upgrade.
Cook said both memory and storage costs remain major concerns for Apple, with particular attention on the DRAM market. He explained that the industry is redirecting more capacity toward high-bandwidth memory used in AI servers, which is leaving less supply available for consumer devices. ‘There’s less supply at a time when consumers want devices and the memory guys are passing along huge price increases,’ he said. ‘We definitely need memory pricing and supply to return to reasonable levels for consumer products. That’s the bottom line.’
The Apple chief also indicated that the company is willing to use its financial resources to help improve memory supply, although he did not provide details.
‘We’re willing to use our balance sheet to help be a part of the solution,’ he said. ‘Obviously, we need more capacity.’ At the same time, Cook made clear that Apple has no plans to build its own memory or storage chip manufacturing facilities, despite its substantial cash reserves and expertise in silicon design.
(Inputs From Reuters)
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