The cost of a new laptop or gaming PC just jumped sharply — and tech giants are blaming the artificial intelligence boom. Apple has raised the price of some MacBooks and iPads by nearly 20%, with its cheapest laptop, the Neo, now costing £699 in the UK after rising from £599 within months of its launch. The company said the electronics industry was facing “an unprecedented challenge” from an “extraordinary surge” in demand for memory chips to power AI data centres. “We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly,” Apple said, adding that it had “shielded our customers from these increases so far” but had now “reached a point where we need to begin raising prices”.
The price hikes extend beyond Apple. Valve, the gaming giant behind Steam, launched its new Steam Machine console this week at £879 in the UK — far above its original target. In a blog post, the company said its “original goal for the price of Steam Machine is no longer viable” because of soaring component costs. Valve had already raised prices on its handheld Steam Deck by 40% earlier in 2026 for similar reasons. The company explained that “over the past year or so” the expected trend of hardware getting cheaper “has changed quickly and significantly, most visibly for RAM and storage components”.
“Apple raises MacBook and iPad prices by up to 20%, blaming surging memory chip costs driven by AI data centres.”
The root cause, analysts say, is the proliferation of data centres needed to power artificial intelligence, which has triggered a surge in demand for memory chips and caused an imbalance between supply and demand. “This is a significant moment because even Apple, with its scale and buying power, is no longer immune to the rising cost of key components,” said Paolo Pescatore, a tech analyst. Piers Harding-Rolls of Ampere Analysis said the Steam Machine’s pricing at 75% more than a PlayStation 5 would cement it as a “niche offering”. He added that Valve “has been unable to deliver a more accessible price point to consumers”.
While Apple has not yet raised iPhone prices, the company warned that the situation around memory chips was “unsustainable”, a point its outgoing chief executive Tim Cook had foreshadowed in June. David Naranjo of Counterpoint expects other PC and tablet brands to follow Apple’s lead. “They may raise prices on select products, cut discounts on entry-level models, or adjust their product lines to focus more on premium devices,” he said. But Dipanjan Chatterjee of Forrester believes Apple’s loyal customer base will absorb the increases. “If anyone can survive a price increase with minimal blowback, it’s Apple,” he said. With AI data centres still multiplying, the cost of storing and processing data shows no sign of coming down — and consumers may face further price rises before they see any relief.