{"id":86838,"date":"2026-06-26T09:13:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T09:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/86838\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T09:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T09:13:11","slug":"the-ai-price-shock-is-here-apple-microsoft-hike-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/86838\/","title":{"rendered":"The AI price shock is here: Apple, Microsoft hike prices"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Illustration:<\/a> Illustration: A\u00efda Amer\/Axios <\/p>\n

People spend a lot of time on their devices. The AI boom means they will also be spending more for them. <\/p>\n

Why it matters: The enormous sums of money going into the AI race are driving up costs for resources and components throughout the economy. <\/p>\n

Driving the news: Apple provided the clearest evidence<\/a> yet Thursday, raising prices by as much as 25% on MacBook and iPad models \u2014 and blaming soaring memory chip costs due to AI demand. <\/p>\n

The same memory squeeze is now hitting gaming consoles. Also on Thursday, Microsoft announced<\/a> price increases of as much as $150 on Xbox consoles \u2014 which comes after Sony<\/a> and Nintendo<\/a> recently made similar moves. <\/p>\n

Storage and memory costs have more than doubled since last fall, Microsoft said, forcing the price increases because consoles aren’t sold with enough margin to absorb those higher costs. <\/p>\n

The big picture: For now, the AI boom is moving through the economy less like a sudden wave of layoffs and more like a giant buyer of scarce resources, including electricity, water, storage and data-center space as well as chips. <\/p>\n

It’s an “unprecedented challenge” for device makers like Apple, according to Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives. <\/p>\n

Consumer gadgets were one of the few places where prices reliably fell over time over the past few decades. The AI infrastructure boom is reversing that norm. <\/p>\n

Data: Apple; Table: Courtenay Brown\/Axios <\/p>\n

What they’re saying: “The rapid expansion of AI data centers has created an extraordinary surge in demand for memory and storage. We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly,” Apple said in a statement. <\/p>\n

“The entire consumer electronics industry is struggling with the current components crisis, but the effects are particularly hard on consoles,” which “are typically not sold at a profit, but instead for less than they cost to make,” Microsoft said in a statement. <\/p>\n

The intrigue: Prices for computer software and accessories jumped a record <\/a>14.5% in May from a year earlier, ending a quarter-century era in which those products almost always got cheaper. <\/p>\n

What to watch: The potential labor market effects of AI may still be huge. Companies are testing how much work can be automated, with any job impact becoming clearer over time. <\/p>\n

Yet pocketbook issues may steal the limelight from worries over jobs. <\/p>\n

Already, AI data centers have fueled a growing political backlash from residents worried about higher utility bills. <\/p>\n

The bottom line: Americans have been wondering how the technology would change the economics of their lives. The first place many are feeling it may be their wallets. <\/p>\n

AI is moving fast. Axios AI+ keeps you ahead. Sign up free at Axios.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Illustration: A\u00efda Amer\/Axios People spend a lot of time on their devices. The AI boom means they will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[319,420,7829,85,6820,320,7828,46375,34075,46373,46374],"class_list":["post-86838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-microsoft","tag-apple","tag-azure","tag-azure-ai","tag-data-center","tag-memory-chip","tag-microsoft","tag-microsoft-ai","tag-ordinary-americans","tag-price-increases","tag-storage-devices","tag-xbox-consoles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}