Apple has raised the prices of some MacBooks and iPads by almost 20%, saying the electronics industry is facing an “unprecedented challenge” due to a surge in demand for chips to power AI data centres. The move, announced on Thursday, takes the starting price of the Neo, Apple’s lowest-priced laptop, from $599 to $699. Prices of a MacBook Air with 512 gigabytes went up $200; a MacBook Pro with 1 terabyte of storage became $300 more expensive.
“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.” The company also raised prices for both versions of its HomePod smart speaker and Apple TV set-top box. Shares of Apple fell nearly 5%, while rival Dell was down more than 8%.
“Apple raises iPad and MacBook prices by up to 20% as chip costs soar, warns iPhone hike likely coming.”
The price hikes do not affect Apple’s cash cow, the iPhone – but analysts expect that to change. “The iPhone isn’t spared. Its hike is coming,” said Nabila Popal, a senior research director at IDC. “It was incredibly strategic for Apple to make the price hike announcements prior to the iPhone fall launch, so the headlines at launch is not the price hikes but the value the new phones bring.”
The move came the same week as Valve launched its Steam Machine at a higher-than-expected price of £879 in the UK, blaming “soaring component costs”. Valve said its “original goal for the price of Steam Machine is no longer viable”. Piers Harding-Rolls of Ampere Analysis said the market research firm had estimated a starting price between $700-$800, but rising costs meant “Valve has been unable to deliver a more accessible price point to consumers”.
Not long after Apple’s announcement, Xbox said it had decided to “significantly” raise the price of its popular gaming console for the second time in less than a year. The basic console will go up by $100 (£75) to $499, while the version with more memory will rise by $150 to $749. Xbox previously hiked prices in October by $20–$70, meaning a new console will be 30% to 40% more expensive than this time last year. “The entire consumer electronics industry is struggling with the current components crisis,” Xbox said. The company warned that memory and storage costs have already more than doubled, and it expects them to double again by 2027.
Tech analyst Paolo Pescatore said Apple’s price rises showed “the AI boom was now affecting consumer electronics”. Prices of dynamic random access memory, used in virtually all modern tech gadgets, rose as much as 98% in the first quarter of 2026 and are set to jump another 58% to 63% in the current quarter, according to industry tracker TrendForce – a surge dubbed “Ram-ageddon” by some experts. Memory makers such as Micron have prioritised orders from AI chipmakers like Nvidia, leaving little supply for electronics makers and forcing price increases.
Apple’s deep supplier ties have provided some cushion, several analysts said – some rivals have been forced to raise prices even more sharply. But with the iPhone hike still to come, consumers face a future of increasingly expensive gadgets.