Tech giant Apple hiked on Thursday the prices for its iPad and MacBooks, saying it could no longer protect customers from rising memory and storage chip costs driven by the artificial intelligence industry's datacenter buildout.
The move does not affect Apple's main cash cow, the iPhone. But it would take starting price of the Neo – its lowest priced laptop aimed at winning marketshare from affordable Windows and Chromebook laptops – from $599 to $699 months after launch.
The increase shows even the world's most valuable consumer electronics company, with supply chain relationships that are the envy of the industry, is not immune to a memory price surge that has dulled the outlook for smartphone and PC sales.
Memory makers such as Micron have, in recent months, prioritized orders from AI chipmakers like Nvidia, helping them earn record profits but leaving little supply for electronics makers that have been forced to increase prices.
"We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly," Apple said in a statement.
