Apple Just Raised Prices Because of a Chip Shortage. But the Real Winner Isn't Apple. It's This AI Stock. - Yahoo Finance

Apple raised prices on several of its products on June 25, 2026, citing a shortage of memory chips rather than tariffs or product redesign. The company pointed to an unprecedented surge in demand for ... Read original →

Apple’s price hike stems not from tariffs but from memory scarcity driven by AI data centers’ insatiable demand for HBM, which is cannibalizing standard DRAM/NAND supply. Technically, foundries like TSMC are reallocating advanced packaging capacity to HBM3e/HBM4, inflating BOM costs for consumer devices. Geopolitically, U.S. export controls are fragmenting the memory supply chain, forcing firms into costly multi-sourcing and buffer stocking. Samsung may revive tacit pricing coordination, while SK Hynix accelerates capacity shifts to Taiwan, China to mitigate risk. Over the next 12–24 months, a de facto 'AI-first' allocation model will entrench Micron’s dominance—bolstered by CHIPS Act subsidies and HBM leadership—while eroding OEMs’ cost control, signaling a structural power shift toward upstream memory makers in the semiconductor value chain.