Apple and Microsoft hike prices as AI crunches global memory chip supply

Apple and Microsoft are pushing customers to pay more for their devices just as a global shortage of advanced memory chips—driven by insatiable demand from AI companies—is squeezing the entire industry's supply chain. The price increases, announced quietly in recent weeks, mark a rare moment when two of the world's most profitable tech giants are forced to pass costs directly to consumers rather than absorbing them, signaling how thoroughly artificial intelligence is reshaping the economics of consumer technology. For ordinary people, it's a stark reminder that the AI boom they've heard so much about is already hitting their wallets.

CBC·3d ago