Apple raised iPad and MacBook prices on June 25, saying it could no longer shield customers from soaring memory and storage chip costs driven by the AI industry’s data centre buildout.

The move does not affect Apple’s main cash cow, the iPhone. But it would take the starting price of the Neo – its lowest-priced laptop aimed at winning market share from affordable Windows and Chromebook laptops – from US$599 (S$777) to US$699 months after launch.

The increase shows that even the world’s most valuable consumer electronics company, with supply chain relationships that are the envy of the industry, is not immune to a memory price surge that has dulled the outlook for smartphone and PC sales.

Memory makers such as Micron have in recent months prioritised orders from AI chipmakers like Nvidia, helping them earn record profit, but leaving little supply for electronics makers that have been forced to increase prices.

“We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly,” Apple said in a statement. “We have shielded our customers from these increases so far, but we have now reached a point where we need to begin raising prices on a number of products, including today’s increases for iPad and Mac.”

Apple hiked the price of a MacBook Air with 512 gigabytes of storage to US$1,299 from US$1,099, while a MacBook Pro with one terabyte of storage rose to US$1,999 from US$1,699, according to updated prices on its website. An iPad Air with 128 gigabytes of storage rose from US$599 to US$749, among other changes.

Shares of the company were down 0.7 per cent in premarket trading after the news.

Apple said in April that existing inventories had helped it keep its gross margins above Wall Street expectations, but that rising memory costs would start to catch up by the end of June, with profitability expected to fall slightly.

“We expect significantly higher memory costs,” chief executive Tim Cook said on a conference call with analysts in late April.

“Where we don’t give colour beyond June, I can tell you that beyond the June quarter, we believe memory costs will drive an increasing impact on our business,” Cook had said.

Apple has not disclosed what steps besides the price hike it has taken to address rising memory costs. The company said on June 25: “We know this is not welcome news, and we are working tirelessly to find solutions.”

Prices of dynamic random access memory, used in virtually all modern tech gadgets, rose as much as 98 per cent in the first quarter of 2026, and are set to jump by another 58 per cent to 63 per cent in the current quarter, according to industry tracker TrendForce.

That surge, dubbed by some experts as “RAMageddon”, has been driven by a boom in AI data centre construction, with companies like Nvidia signing long-term deals with memory makers that are racing to increase capacity.

Micron said on June 24 that it has locked in US$22 billion in such long-term commitments from customers looking to secure their memory supplies.

The rising costs are expected to weigh heavily on device sales in 2026, with research firm IDC estimating that the smartphone market will see its biggest-ever annual decline of nearly 14 per cent in 2026, while the PC market will fall 11.3 per cent.

“The memory environment is tough and remains structurally tough for the foreseeable future,” said Ben Bajarin, CEO of technology consulting firm Creative Strategies. “We had already had signals Apple would need to raise prices, and with their supply chain as good as anyone, there is concern the rest of the industry may have to raise prices even more than Apple.”

Among the notable bright spots has been the MacBook Neo launched in March, which helped power Apple’s strong sales forecast for the June quarter and has even led some industry watchers to revise their estimates for PC sales.

With its increased price, it has now lost a US$100 advantage over the US$699 XPS 13 laptop that Dell unveiled in May especially to take on the Neo, while also making it more expensive than some Chromebooks from Lenovo and Asus. REUTERS

Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads as memory costs skyrocket