Apple faces price hikes for iPhone 18 Pro as AI-fueled chip shortage bites - Crypto Briefing

Apple is facing potential price hikes for its upcoming iPhone 18 Pro due to a global shortage of memory chips fueled by AI demand. As data centers powered by AI models from companies like NVIDIA, Goog... Read original →

The AI compute arms race is fracturing consumer electronics supply chains. Insatiable HBM demand from NVIDIA, Microsoft, and Google has diverted 3nm capacity and EUV tools away from mobile SoCs toward data centers, starving LPDDR5X and NAND of wafer allocations. Despite Apple’s privileged contracts with suppliers in Taiwan, China, and South Korea, it cannot fully absorb a 270% DRAM price surge—marking the first real crack in its cost-control dominance. Samsung and SK Hynix may exploit this to hike mobile memory pricing, pressuring Android OEMs to follow suit, while Micron accelerates its pivot to AI-optimized storage. Over the next 18 months, the battle between premium smartphones and AI infrastructure will play out at foundry loading bays, with TSMC and Samsung’s allocation decisions becoming a new axis of tech geopolitics. Without aggressive countermeasures—like in-house memory controllers or pre-booking 2027 capacity—Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro premium may herald a broader industry repricing.