Tim Cook says price hikes of Apple products ‘unavoidable’ amid AI-fueled memory chip crisis

Apple is slated to officially unveil its next lineup of iPhone 18 smartphones in September 2026.

iPhone manufacturing in India is growing rapidly as Apple expands its global supply chain.

Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max. (Express Photo)

3 min readNew DelhiJun 19, 2026 10:12 AM IST First published on: Jun 18, 2026 at 01:11 PM IST

The next lineup of iPhone, iPad, and Macbook could come with a higher price tag as an ongoing global shortage of memory and storage chips pushes manufacturing costs for Apple and other device-makers.

Outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed that the price increases are unavoidable in a recent interview with Wall Street Journal. Describing the present situation as unsustainable, Cook said that Apple had made efforts to absorb chip costs that have increased fourfold since last year.

However, Cook did not specifically name which products will be affected or when Apple is expected to hike prices. On an earnings call in April this year, Cook had warned that these higher costs could impact Apple’s next quarterly results. “If you look forward to June, the majority of our supply constraints will be on several Mac models. We think, looking forward, that the Mac Mini and the Mac Studio may take several months to reach a supply-demand balance,” he previously said.

Cook is set to step down from his position as Apple CEO and hand over the reins to John Ternus from September 2026. Ternus has also previously warned about rising costs.

Apple is not alone. Across brands, smartphones and laptops are becoming more expensive with AI development being blamed for the rise in input costs, especially of chips. The crisis, dubbed ‘RAMageddon’, highlights the AI industry’s insatiable demand for compute. With AI companies buying memory chips for their data centres or data farms, the prices of these components have shot up, forcing companies like Apple and Dell to raise prices or cut margins. These chips are also used in laptops and smartphones.

How much costlier will iPhones get?

Apple is slated to officially unveil its next lineup of iPhone 18 smartphones in September 2026, which gives the tech giant sufficient time to announce or hint at increased prices. If Apple decides to hike prices, experts believe that the next version of the iPhone will almost certainly be impacted, according to a report by Financial Times.

Other Apple devices such as the Apple Watch, Mac, iPad, and Apple Vision Pro also contain memory (DRAM) and storage (NAND) chips.

Also Read | Apple raises Mac mini price as chip and memory shortages persist

While it is unclear how much more expensive any of these products will be, researchers at TechInsights estimate that Apple would need to add another $270 to the next iPhone Pro to keep its profit margin intact, according to WSJ. For context, the iPhone 17 Pro starts at $1,099.

So far, the AI boom has done little to boost Apple’s fortunes. The company has come under pressure over its AI strategy for its devices. Earlier this year, it even settled a false advertising lawsuit for $250 million. The lawsuit had alleged that Apple had failed to deliver the AI features it promised two years ago.

However, Apple has shown progress this month by unveiling an overhaul of its Siri AI voice assistant at the company’s flagship Worldwide Developers conference in June this year.