Apple CEO Tim Cook has confirmed that rising costs for memory and storage chips are making product price increases “unavoidable.” Driven by the massive industry demand for AI, the cost of components has reached what Cook describes as an “unsustainable” level for the company to continue absorbing.
Reports suggest the financial impact is significant, with some components in the iPhone 18 Pro potentially costing four times as much as they did in the iPhone 17 Pro. This trend mirrors recent challenges in the gaming sector, where console manufacturers have also struggled with component pricing amid the ongoing AI hardware boom.