Apple raises prices on Macs and iPads

Apple raised the price of its MacBooks and iPads on Thursday, just days after CEO Tim Cook warned price hikes were “unavoidable” amid soaring demand for memory chips.

The price of a MacBook Pro is up $300 to $1,999, while the price of a MacBook Air is up $200 to $1,299. An iPad Pro is going for an additional $200 at $1,199, and an iPad Air now costs $749 after a $150 price hike. iPhone prices so far remain unchanged.

“We’re doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we’ve been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable,” Cook told The Wall Street Journal last week.

The key driver is memory chips, which are responsible for data processing and storage. The price of these chips has jumped in recent months, as the AI data center build-out has fueled new demand.

“There’s less supply at a time when consumers want devices and the memory guys are passing along huge price increases,” Cook added, according to the Journal. “We definitely need memory pricing and supply to return to reasonable levels for consumer products. That’s the bottom line.”

Apple’s stock fell 6 percent Thursday following the price changes.

President Trump separately announced last week that the iPhone maker is partnering with Intel to design and produce chips in the U.S. It has previously relied on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to produce its chips but has sought to ramp up domestic capacity, particularly during Trump’s second term.