Apple chief executive Tim Cook has blamed the US memory-chip manufacturer Micron for forcing the tech giant to aggressively increase product prices in late June, drawing a sharp counter-accusation from the supplier. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Mr Cook said memory-chip production capacity had plummeted just as consumer demand surged. He alleged that memory manufacturers had seized the opportunity to increase RAM trading prices, leaving Apple to shoulder massive cost increases.
The chief executive’s remarks strongly imply that Apple views memory-chip manufacturers as the root cause of the current severe chip shortage and skyrocketing prices.
However, Micron chief business officer Sumit Sadana hit back in a separate interview with the Journal, recalling the market downturn of 2023. He noted that during that period, several major clients capitalised on the situation by aggressively driving down prices to historic lows for their own benefit.
Mr Sadana argued that this predatory pricing squeezed the profit margins of memory chipmakers, including Micron, leaving them without the capital required to build new factories or expand production capacity. Consequently, he said, manufacturers now lack the facilities needed to meet the massive spike in customer demand.
