AI Eats Up Memory Capacity! Apple Can't Hold Back, Raises MacBook and iPad Prices, Stock Plunges Over 5%

According to a report by CNBC today (25th), due to the explosive demand for global AI data centers causing memory costs to skyrocket, Apple has officially announced significant price increases across its MacBook and iPad series. This cost-passing move has directly sparked market concerns, with Apple's stock price (AAPL) plummeting 5.22% upon the news, marking its largest single-day drop since February this year. CEO Tim Cook admitted that this is a "once-in-a-century flood" for the electronics industry.

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• Website briefly crashes, ushering in full-scale price hikes, with max increase of $300
• Cook laments "once-in-a-century flood," AI demand crowding out consumer electronics
• Memory manufacturers become biggest winners, iPhone may face $200 price surge

The cost of the artificial intelligence (AI) arms race is now being borne by consumers worldwide. As memory and storage component prices skyrocket like a runaway train, consumer electronics giant Apple has finally buckled. According to CNBC, Apple officially announced on Thursday (25th) that it will fully raise prices across its MacBook and iPad product lines. Upon the news, Apple's stock price (AAPL) immediately dropped 5.22%, closing at around $277.79, marking its worst single-day decline since February this year.

Website briefly crashes, ushering in full-scale price hikes, with max increase of $300

After a brief website crash during updates, consumers were met with a shocking new price list. Price increases for various flagship products range from $100 to $300, with specific adjustments as follows:

• MacBook Neo (Entry-level): Original price $599 → Increased to $699
• MacBook Air 512GB: Original price $1,099 → Increased to $1,299
• MacBook Pro 1TB: Original price $1,699 → Increased to $1,999
• iPad Air 128GB: Original price $599 → Increased to $749
• iPad Pro Wi-Fi 256GB: Original price $999 → Increased to $1,199

Cook laments "once-in-a-century flood," AI demand crowding out consumer electronics

Regarding this rare large-scale price increase, Apple stated helplessly in an official announcement: "The consumer electronics industry is facing unprecedented challenges. The rapid expansion of AI data centers has caused an abnormal surge in demand for memory and storage. We have never seen component prices rise so quickly and so dramatically." Apple emphasized that it has absorbed costs to its limit and has now reached a stage where "it must begin to raise prices on some products."

CEO Tim Cook had already warned in an exclusive interview with the Wall Street Journal last week, describing the current supply chain crisis as "a hundred-year flood." He said that in his 40-plus years in the electronics industry, he has never seen such extreme conditions and admitted that the company can no longer fully protect consumers from the impact of soaring costs.

Memory manufacturers become biggest winners, iPhone may face $200 price surge

The root of this crisis lies in global memory suppliers疯狂转向高利润的高频宽记忆体（HBM），以满足NVIDIA等AI服务器的巨大需求。根据Counterpoint Research数据，过去三个季度内，一般记忆体与储存价格已暴涨四倍。

In the dramatic shift in the supply chain, memory manufacturers like Micron have become the biggest winners, with their latest quarterly gross margin jumping from 39% to a staggering 84.9% year-over-year. However, this is a heavy burden for Apple. To smoothly run Apple Intelligence and the new Siri, future new iPhones are expected to require a full upgrade to 12GB RAM. Analysts warn that this wave of cost surges could increase the manufacturing cost of each iPhone by approximately $200, meaning that future iPhone lineups are highly likely to follow suit with shocking price increases of $150 to $200.