Apple and Microsoft raise prices amid AI-driven chip shortage - MSN

Apple and Microsoft have raised product prices due to AI-driven chip shortages, highlighting the semiconductor industry's current challenges. Chipmakers are prioritizing AI orders, causing DRAM prices... Read original →

The AI compute boom is fracturing the semiconductor industry’s supply structure. DRAM prices have nearly doubled as Micron and peers redirect capacity to HBM for AI, starving consumer electronics of standard memory and forcing Apple and Microsoft to raise prices. Technically, OEMs are accelerating adoption of LPDDR5X or chiplet designs to bypass bottlenecks. Geopolitically, U.S. export controls on advanced equipment deepen regional supply fragmentation, compelling firms to hold costly buffer inventories. In the competitive arena, Samsung and SK Hynix will leverage HBM3E leadership, while TSMC tightens its CoWoS packaging moat around NVIDIA and Microsoft. Over the next 12–24 months, consumer device inflation will persist, with generic DRAM supply unlikely to recover before 2027—solidifying an 'AI-first' allocation paradigm across the sector.