Apple raised iPad and MacBook prices by nearly 20% on Thursday, saying it could no longer shield customers from soaring memory and storage chip costs driven by the AI industry’s data centre buildout. The move does not affect the iPhone, but the starting price of Apple’s lowest-priced laptop, the Neo, jumped from $599 to $699 mere months after launch. A MacBook Air with 512 gigabytes went up $200, and a MacBook Pro with 1 terabyte of storage became $300 more expensive. Apple also raised prices for both versions of its HomePod smart speaker and Apple TV set-top box.
“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.” The company’s shares fell nearly 5%, while rival Dell was down more than 8%.
“Apple and Xbox raise prices up to 20%, blaming AI-driven memory chip costs; analysts warn iPhone hikes are next.”
Not long after Apple’s announcement, Microsoft-owned Xbox said it would raise the price of its consoles for the second time in less than a year. The basic Xbox Series S will go up by $100 (£75) to $499, while the more memory-intensive Series X will rise by $150 to $749. New prices take effect from August. Combined with an earlier hike in October, the cost of a new console is now 30% to 40% more expensive than it was this time last year. “The entire consumer electronics industry is struggling with the current components crisis, but the effects are particularly hard on consoles,” Xbox said, adding that memory and storage costs have already more than doubled and are expected to double again by 2027.
Analysts described the situation as “Ramageddon”. Prices of dynamic random access memory (DRAM), 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. The surge is driven by a boom in AI data centre construction, with companies like Nvidia signing long-term deals with memory makers.
Tech analyst Paolo Pescatore said Apple’s price rises showed “the AI boom was now affecting consumer electronics”. Even the world’s biggest technology companies are not immune. Nintendo has said it will raise the Switch 2’s price globally from September, and Valve recently increased the cost of its Steam Deck by 40%. On social media, one X user reacted to Xbox’s price hikes: “My favorite hobby is cooked.” Another on Reddit said Xbox “may as well just cancel” its upcoming console Helix “because no one will be able to afford it”.
Analysts expect iPhone prices to go up next. “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.”