Apple’s outgoing CEO Tim Cook said the company is planning to raise prices as the cost of the memory chips it uses has surged.
Cook told the Wall Street Journal that price increases were “unavoidable” as the situation around memory chips had become “unsustainable.” He did not elaborate on when the prices would rise, or whether it would affect the iPhone 18, which is expected to be launched in September.
The price of memory chips — which are essential components of mobile phones —has increased significantly with the AI boom. “We’re doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we’ve been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable,” Cook told the WSJ.
“There’s less supply at a time when consumers want devices and the memory guys are passing along huge price increases,” Cook added. “We definitely need memory pricing and supply to return to reasonable levels for consumer products. That’s the bottom line.”
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The price of RAM, which is usually one of the cheapest computer components, has nearly doubled since October 2025. Aside from the AI boom, rising prices have also been attributed to the war in Iran. The conflict had disrupted the global supply of helium, a gas crucial in making semiconductors, adding to the cost of computer chips. The average selling price of smartphones globally is expected to rise by around 20% in 2026 to an all-time high, according to research firm Omdia.
Apple’s new phones are likely to cost up to $150 more than the iPhone 17s, as the firm is expected to upgrade their specifications to support new AI features, Omdia’s smartphone market analyst Chiew Le Xuan told the BBC.
Most other smartphone brands have already raised prices, pulled back on promotions or cut specifications to protect their profit margins in response to rising costs, he added. “This is the new pricing reality, not a temporary spike.”
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Meanwhile, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which makes advanced chips for companies like Apple, Nvidia, and AMD said it would not rule out price increases as inflation pushed up its costs. Earlier this year, Samsung said that it expects memory chip supply shortages to make electronic devices more expensive.
Cook is expected to step down from his CEO position at Apple by September, and transition into the role of the executive chairman of the company’s board of directors. John Ternus, the company’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, will become Apple’s next chief executive officer effective September 1, 2026.