Apple raises iPad and MacBook prices, blaming cost of chips amid AI boom

Apple raised iPad and MacBook prices on Thursday, saying it could no longer shield customers from soaring memory and storage chip costs driven by the AI industry’s datacenter buildout. The move does not affect Apple’s cash cow, the iPhone. But it would take starting price of the ⁠Neo, its lowest priced laptop, from $599 to $699 mere months after launch. The increase shows that even the world’s most valuable consumer electronics company, with supply-chain relationships that are the envy of the industry, is not immune to a memory price surge that has dulled the outlook for smartphone and PC sales. Memory ⁠makers such as Micron have in recent months prioritized orders from AI chipmakers such as Nvidia. The move has helped the memory makers to record profits, but has left little supply for electronics makers. Those, in turn, have been forced to increase prices. “We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly,” Apple said in a statement. “We have shielded our customers ⁠from these increases so far, but we have now reached a point where we need to begin raising prices on a number of products, including today’s increases for iPad and Mac.” Prices of a MacBook Air with 512 gigabytes went up $200. A MacBook Pro ‌with 1 terabyte of storage will become $300 more expensive Apple also raised prices for both versions of its HomePod smart speaker and Apple ‌TV set-top box. Shares of the company fell nearly 5%, while rival Dell was down more than 8%. …