The Apple price increase that landed Thursday signals just how severe the global memory crunch has become. The world’s most valuable consumer electronics company raised prices on iPads and MacBooks, admitting it could no longer absorb the soaring cost of memory and storage chips fueled by the AI industry’s massive datacenter buildout.

A Notable Exception, but a Painful One

The price hikes spare Apple’s biggest moneymaker, the iPhone, at least for now. But they hit much of the rest of the lineup, most notably the MacBook Neo, Apple’s lowest-priced laptop designed to win market share from affordable Windows and Chromebook machines. Just months after launch, the Neo’s starting price jumped from $599 to $699.

That increase carries symbolic weight. Even a company with supply chain relationships that rivals envy isn’t immune to a memory price surge that has darkened the outlook for both smartphone and PC sales.

In a candid statement, Apple acknowledged the scale of the problem, saying it had never seen a component price climb so much so quickly. The company said it had shielded customers from the increases until now but had reached a point where raising prices on a number of products was unavoidable.

The Damage Across the Lineup

The increases reach well beyond the Neo. According to Apple’s updated pricing, the changes include:

• MacBook Air with 512GB of storage: up to $1,299 from $1,099
• MacBook Pro with 1TB of storage: up to $1,999 from $1,699
• iPad Air with 128GB of storage: up to $749 from $599
• Higher prices on both HomePod smart speaker versions and the Apple TV set-top box

Investors reacted poorly. Apple shares fell nearly 5%, while rival Dell dropped more than 8%.

Why Memory Got So Expensive

At the root of the crisis is a dramatic shift in where memory chips are going. Memory makers like Micron have increasingly prioritized orders from AI chipmakers such as Nvidia, helping those companies post record profits while leaving little supply for traditional electronics makers. The result has been forced price hikes across the device industry.

The numbers behind the surge are staggering. Prices of dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, which sits inside virtually all modern gadgets, rose as much as 98% in the first quarter of 2026 and are projected to climb another 58% to 63% this quarter, according to industry tracker TrendForce. Some experts have dubbed the phenomenon “RAMageddon.”

The driving force is the boom in AI data center construction. Companies like Nvidia have been signing long-term deals with memory makers racing to expand capacity. Micron alone said this week it had locked in $22 billion in such long-term commitments from customers eager to secure their memory supplies.

A Tough Road Ahead

Apple had seen this coming. Back in April, the company said existing inventories had helped keep its gross margins above Wall Street expectations, but warned that rising memory costs would start catching up by the end of June, with profitability expected to dip slightly.

CEO Tim Cook was direct on a late-April analyst call, saying the company expected significantly higher memory costs. He cautioned that beyond the June quarter, memory expenses would have an increasing impact on Apple’s business.

Analysts believe rivals may have to raise prices even more sharply than Apple, whose deep supplier relationships have softened the blow. Ben Bajarin, CEO of Creative Strategies, summed up the situation bluntly, describing the memory environment as tough and structurally tough for the foreseeable future.

The iPhone Hike Is Likely Coming

Despite being spared this round, the iPhone probably won’t escape for long. Analysts widely expect Apple to raise iPhone prices in the coming months, and the latest hikes could prompt some buyers to move up their purchase plans.

Nabila Popal, a senior research director at IDC, said the iPhone isn’t spared and that its increase is coming. She praised the timing as strategic, noting that announcing the price hikes before the fall iPhone launch means the headlines at launch will focus on the new phones’ value rather than higher prices.

Industry-Wide Pain

The ripple effects are expected to weigh heavily on device sales this year. IDC estimates the smartphone market will suffer its biggest-ever annual decline of nearly 14%, while the PC market is projected to fall 11.3%.

One bright spot had been the MacBook Neo, launched in March, which helped power Apple’s strong June-quarter forecast and even led some analysts to revise PC sales estimates upward. But with its new $699 price, the Neo has lost the $100 edge it held over Dell’s $699 XPS 13, a laptop Dell unveiled specifically to challenge it. The higher price also makes the Neo more expensive than some Chromebooks from Lenovo and Asus.

The Bigger Picture

Apple’s price increases offer a vivid illustration of how the AI boom is reshaping costs far beyond data centers, reaching all the way to everyday consumer devices. As memory makers continue funneling supply toward lucrative AI contracts, device manufacturers and their customers are left to absorb the consequences. With Apple acknowledging it’s working tirelessly to find solutions, and an iPhone price hike widely anticipated, the “RAMageddon” squeeze looks set to define the tech landscape for the rest of the year.