Apple raised its 14-inch MacBook Pro price by 18% from $1,699 to $1,999 and hiked its MacBook Neo budget model by 17% to $699 this week to offset surging memory chip costs. The moves helped push the Nasdaq down 1.4% as PC makers and Microsoft lifted prices on RAM-constrained products.
This week Apple increased the price of its 14-inch MacBook Pro from $1,699 to $1,999, an 18% rise, and raised the MacBook Neo budget model from $599 to $699, a 17% increase. The company attributed these adjustments to higher costs for DRAM and NAND memory components.
The unexpected hikes contributed to a 1.4% drop in the Nasdaq as investors worried about consumer demand. Microsoft followed suit with a $100–$150 Xbox price increase, while Dell, HP, Lenovo and Asus have either raised prices or reduced onboard memory to manage costs.
A surge in AI data center deployments is absorbing a large share of available memory chips, tightening supply for consumer PC and gadget makers. Cloud providers are investing hundreds of billions in AI infrastructure, intensifying competition for DRAM and NAND chips.
Digitimes
