Apple has increased the price of MacBooks and iPads by about 20 per cent worldwide, one of the broadest price rises in its history, as the iPhone maker blamed memory chip shortages caused by the artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure boom.
The $4.3 trillion (€3.8 trillion) US tech giant said on Thursday that the consumer technology industry was facing an “unprecedented challenge”, with memory prices rising so quickly that it would have to pass the costs on to customers.
Apple chief executive Tim Cook had warned last week that price increases this year would be “unavoidable” because of the “unsustainable” cost of memory and storage.
But it has so far stopped short of raising prices for the iPhone, Apple’s blockbuster product that still accounts for about half of its revenue.
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“The rapid expansion of AI data centres has created an extraordinary surge in demand for memory and storage,” Apple said. “We know this is not welcome news, and we are working tirelessly to find solutions.”
The decision to substantially increase the cost of its entire line of laptop and tablet products is likely to unsettle investors. Apple’s shares fell 5 per cent following the price rise.
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Apple has historically announced targeted price rises with the launch of new generations of devices, often limiting them to specific models or dropping cheaper models outright. A uniform overnight price increase across two major product lines is rare for Apple.
Prices across Apple’s iPad and MacBook line-up have increased in the region of 20 per cent. The 512GB MacBook Air, for example, has gone from $1,099 to $1,299, while the iPad Pro 256GB has gone from $999 to $1,199. The MacBook Neo, Apple’s lower-cost laptop launched in March, has jumped by 25 per cent, from $599 to $749.
“So far Apple has been able to shield customers by absorbing much of the [memory and storage] cost increases, which are continuing to rise to unprecedented levels,” Apple noted on Thursday.
By Apple’s own account, the memory crunch triggered by the AI infrastructure boom is proving more disruptive to its supply chain than any other crisis in the past few years.
Apple defied expectations it would raise prices late last year in the aftermath of US president Donald Trump’s tariff war. It also avoided price increases during the Covid-19 pandemic, which led to the massive factory complexes of Apple supplier Foxconn in China being shut for months.
The iPhone maker joins a growing list of consumer technology companies that have raised the prices of their products citing the memory shortfall this year. Laptop makers Dell, HP, Lenovo and Asus have already flagged similar price increases, while Samsung raised the price of two models of its new S26 smartphone in the US by $100.
A Morgan Stanley study this month found that memory prices had increased sixfold in the past year, with new manufacturing capacity taking “years to build, quality and ramp”.
It said this “chipflation” was the direct result of AI hyperscalers squeezing out traditional buyers in the consumer memory space. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026
