Apple has raised the prices of its MacBook and iPad lines by 15 to 25 per cent, directly attributing the increases to an unprecedented surge in memory and storage chip costs driven by the global build-out of artificial intelligence data centres. The move, announced on 25 June, marks one of the first times a major consumer electronics company has explicitly linked retail price hikes to the AI boom. In the United States, the entry-level MacBook Air now costs $1,299, up from $1,099, while the base MacBook Pro with 1 terabyte of storage rose from $1,699 to $1,999. The iPad Air 128GB jumped from $599 to $749. In India, the increases were steeper in rupee terms, with the 14-inch MacBook Pro rising by Rs 70,000 and the iPad Pro by nearly Rs 40,000. European prices also climbed, with the MacBook Neo moving from €699 to €799 in Italy. iPhones were spared for now, but the company signalled further increases could follow.

The mechanism behind the price shock is a severe supply-demand imbalance in the memory chip market. The rapid expansion of AI data centres has created an extraordinary surge in demand for high-bandwidth memory and high-performance storage, the same components used in consumer devices. According to Counterpoint Research, memory contract prices surged 80 to 90 per cent in the first quarter of 2026 alone, after a 50 per cent jump in the final quarter of 2025, and have roughly quadrupled over the past year. Chipmakers such as Micron and SK Hynix have prioritised orders from AI server manufacturers, leaving consumer electronics firms with constrained supply and sharply higher input costs. Apple’s outgoing chief executive Tim Cook described the situation as a “hundred-year flood” and said the company had shielded customers as long as possible but had now reached a point where price rises were unavoidable.

The impact is rippling across the technology sector. Microsoft, Lenovo, Dell, and HP have all raised prices on laptops and servers in recent months, while Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft have increased console prices. Analysts in London and New York note that even Apple, with its vast supply-chain leverage, could not absorb the cost surge indefinitely. The company’s shares fell nearly 5 per cent on the day of the announcement, while Dell’s dropped more than 8 per cent. In Moscow, the business daily Kommersant reported the hikes alongside a separate fine imposed on Apple by a Russian court, while Brazilian financial outlet Valor Econômico highlighted that the increases spared the iPhone, Apple’s main revenue driver, but still signalled a structural shift in component costs.

The next milestone to watch is the expected launch of the iPhone 18 series in September. Research director Tarun Pathak of Counterpoint Research told CNBC that higher chip costs could add $150 to $200 to iPhone prices. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs forecast that the undersupply of memory chips will persist and keep prices heavily inflated through at least 2027. Apple’s statement that it needed to “begin raising prices on a number of products” leaves open the possibility of further adjustments across its portfolio.