Apple plans to raise prices on its products to counter rising costs for memory and storage chips, the company's chief executive told the Wall Street Journal in an interview. According to the interview, a strong uptick in AI-driven demand for data centers has tightened the market for essential components, pushing chip prices markedly higher and creating intense competition among consumer electronics manufacturers.
In the interview, Tim Cook acknowledged that Apple has absorbed some of the increased costs but indicated that further increases are unavoidable. He said the company has tried to limit the impact on customers but that the current trend has reached an unsustainable point.
"Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable," Cook said. "We re doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we een trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable."
Cook also noted an upcoming leadership change: he will hand over operational responsibilities to John Ternus in September. Beyond that personnel note, Cook did not provide details on when any price adjustments would begin, how large they might be, or which specific Apple products could see higher prices.
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The comments underline a supply-side pressure point for firms that rely on DRAM and NAND memory as inputs, particularly as AI workloads expand demand in large-scale data centers. While Cook described efforts to mitigate the cost increases, he framed the situation as one where pass-through to end customers may be necessary if component cost inflation persists.
This development could affect consumer electronics pricing and margins for firms across hardware and related retail channels. Apple id not provide a timeline or scope for any price changes and left open which product lines might be affected.
Summary
Apple's CEO says the company will raise product prices to offset sharply higher memory and storage chip costs driven by AI-related demand for data centers. No timing or product details were disclosed, and Apple did not immediately reply to a comment request.