Apple Raises MacBook and iPad Prices as AI Boom Drives Up Memory Chip Costs

Recently, headlines have been flooded with reports about how AI is driving up memory prices because of soaring demand for chips.

Now, Apple customers are about to feel the impact as the company has announced price increases across several of its devices. The affected products include the MacBook Air, which will now cost $200 more. The iPad Pro is also up by $200, while the iPad Air has increased by $150. The MacBook Pro saw the biggest jump, rising by $300, while the entry-level MacBook Neo now costs $100 more.

Has Apple ever increased prices this quickly?

It’s rare for Apple to raise prices this aggressively. The last major jump came in 2017 when the iPhone X launched at $999 for the base model, a $350 increase over the previous year’s iPhone 7. At the time, Apple justified the higher price with premium OLED displays, Face ID, and an edge-to-edge design.

This time, the reason is much simpler, as Apple itself acknowledged just how dramatic the rise in memory costs has been.

“We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly… We have shielded our customers from these increases so far, but we have now reached a point where we need to begin raising prices.”

The announcement comes just days after Tim Cook told The Wall Street Journal that “price increases are unavoidable.”

Why Apple is raising MacBook and iPad prices

For months, analysts, journalists, and policymakers have been discussing the downsides of the AI boom: soaring energy consumption, rising operating costs, and the risk of widespread job losses.