Tim Cook Warns iPhone Prices Will Jump - Memory Shortage Is a 'Hundred-Year Flood'
AI data centers ate the chip supply. DRAM up 6x. Apple margins squeezed. iPhone 18 will cost more.
Your next iPhone will probably cost more. Tim Cook basically said so out loud.
The Apple CEO told The Wall Street Journal that a global memory chip crunch - driven by AI data centers buying everything in sight - leaves Apple no comfortable choice.
What Cook said
He compared the supply shock to a “hundred-year flood.”
Memory prices have risen more than sixfold in a year, analysts at Morgan Stanley noted. DRAM and NAND - the boring chips inside every phone and laptop - are now fought over by cloud giants building AI servers.
Apple can absorb pain better than most. It still has shareholders.
Cook declined to spell out exact price hikes or dates. But he confirmed the iPhone 18 lineup later this year will not launch at last year’s prices.
Why this is happening
Simple version:
- AI needs insane amounts of memory.
- Chip makers prioritize huge cloud contracts with prepayments.
- Phone and PC makers fight for leftovers.
- Prices rise. Products get more expensive.
Analysts warn of 15% PC shortfalls and 12% smartphone shortfalls in 2027 if the squeeze continues.
The memory market could hit $890 billion this year - up from about $220 billion in 2025, per industry estimates.
What it means for you
- iPhone, iPad, Mac - all vulnerable
- Upgrades you planned for autumn may cost $50-150 more - guesses until Apple announces numbers
- Cook steps down as CEO September 1; John Ternus inherits this mess
Apple spent WWDC selling Siri AI powered partly by Google Gemini. Cool demo. Expensive backend.
The irony: the AI boom Apple is selling is the same boom eating the chips that make iPhones affordable.
Siri got smarter. Your wallet may get thinner.
That is the 2026 tech trade-off in one sentence.