Apple plans to hike its prices, citing the rising costs of storage chips and memory, CEO Tim Cook says.
The shift comes as the AI industry has been devouring memory, driving up the costs, and as inflation has been plaguing the economy.
“Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable,” Cook told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published Wednesday.
“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.”
He didn’t specify the dollar amount of the hikes, say which products would be affected or share the timing.
The announcement came as Apple’s next major product launch is expected in September, the Journal noted. The rollout, usually one of the biggest events of the year in consumer tech, will feature the iPhone 18. A new, foldable iPhone is expected, too.
Price hikes for products including Macs and iPads could hit consumers prior to September, according to the Journal.
Apple fans should brace themselves – the skyrocketing price of memory means the company would have to hike prices seriously to preserve its profit margins. That could translate to a $270 price increase for the next iPhone Pro, according to the Journal, which cited estimates from research firm TechInsights.
The AI data center boom has been gobbling up the world’s supply of memory chips, creating a shortage and casuing prices to skyrocket, according to reports. That has knock-on effects for consumer tech, experts say.
“We’re willing to use our balance sheet to help be a part of the solution,” Cook said. “Obviously, more capacity is needed.”
Still, Apple has no plans to get into the memory-chip business itself.
“We can’t do everything,” the exec said. “We know what we’re good at.”
The warning from Cook, who’s set to step down as CEO in September, comes as the tech giant is redoubling its own AI efforts.
After lagging behind competitors the past few years, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company recently announced a new, AI-powered Siri digital assistant that’s advertised as being “profoundly more intelligent, knowledgeable, and capable.”
Apple is also readying to launch AI-equipped AirPods and glasses – the next step in its development of tech that can analyze images and provide instant context, according to Bloomberg News.
Prices have been going up across the board.
Inflation surpassed 4% in May for the first time in three years as higher energy costs amid the Iran war weighed on prices – seeping into everything from food to airfares as Americans face a rising cost-of-living.