Apple hiked iPad and MacBook prices on Thursday, saying it could no longer “shield” customers from soaring memory and storage chip costs driven by the AI industry's rapid and expansive data center buildout.

Tim Cook says Apple’s price increases are ‘unavoidable’ as AI demand for memory chips drives up costs. The Mac mini’s entry price has already jumped.

Tim Cook said last week that Apple would hike prices due to surging memory and storage costs.

By Emily Bary and Christine Ji