Apple hikes prices by $300 on MacBooks, blames AI-driven RAM costs

Apple’s recent price hikes—$300 more on the 16-inch MacBook Pro, $150 on the iPad Air, and $30 on the HomePod Mini—are the direct result of an AI-fueled memory shortage, according to CEO Tim Cook. The company blames memory manufacturers for reallocating production lines to HBM (high-bandwidth memory) for AI data centers, away from consumer DDR5 RAM. Carnegie Mellon’s Tim Derdenger calls it “basic economics,” while NYU’s Srikanth Jagabathula notes that the same memory chip earns far more inside an AI server than a consumer device, making the shortage lasting rather than temporary.

Yet critics point to Apple’s high hardware margins—estimated at 30–40% across products and up to 47% on the iPhone 17 Pro—and four consecutive quarters of record earnings. Professor Ari Lightman of Carnegie Mellon argues the price increases are more about shareholder appeasement than necessity, especially with Apple lagging in the AI race, a new CEO in John Ternus, and no blockbuster new product category. Consumers are thus footing the bill for an AI obsession they didn’t ask for, even as companies like Micron post record profits from the same shift.