Apple has agreed to pay $2.00 per gigabit for dynamic random access memory starting in 2027, rising from its previous $1.50 rate, as spiking demand from AI data centers strains global supply chains and threatens consumer device price increases.
The Memory Cost Shift and Supply Chain Pressures
Rising component costs are poised to alter the hardware market significantly as major technology firms ramp up spending on infrastructure. According to a social media post made on September 14 by user @SemiconductorsX and supported by reporting from Digitimes, Apple may have agreed to a deal to pay $2.00 per Gb of dynamic random access memory, or DRAM. Apple had previously paid $1.50 per Gb of DRAM, and it was quoted for 2027 memory from Samsung at $2.00 per Gb. The post noted that Apple hadn’t taken the deal yet when it was shared, but a separate report on Wednesday from Digitimes says that Apple has indeed taken that deal.
This upward movement follows price increases on lots of existing products earlier this summer, which were the end point after months of attempting to avoid hitting customers with higher prices through supply chain management and eating some costs. Those price increases came for nearly every existing product but the iPhone, but then a $100 increase spread across the existing iPhone lineup in September. The foundational driver behind these adjustments involves severe competition for manufacturing capacity. Consumer-grade memory is made by the same companies that make the giant wafers needed to power AI data centers, called High Bandwidth Memory. The more demand AI companies have for HBM, the less manufacturing capability is reserved for consumer-grade products. You can’t take the RAM built for data centers and cut it for smartphones, as every process focusing on the larger wafers is essentially lost to the smartphone supply chain.
AI Infrastructure Demand and the Consumer Impact
The race to secure computing power has created substantial friction within global supply chains. Companies including NVIDIA, SpaceXAI, OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, and Anthropic are pushing for more data centers, buying land, staking them out for future data centers, and then pre-purchasing the RAM and other compute needed for the non-existent data centers. Much of the money for these land and equipment buyouts comes from financing against the perceived value of the future data center. Apple plays a part in this with its demand for Private Cloud Compute, but to a much lesser extent given how its AI functions. Your iPhone, iPad, and Mac are more expensive because companies promising AI will end humanity are saturating the supply chain with pre-orders using money they don’t have.
Tim Cook called the AI-driven RAM shortages a “100-year flood” that would inevitably lead to product price increases. The widening chasm between output and requirements underscores the severity of the shortage. Supply chain reports suggest that demand will go up 36.2% while supply will only rise by 19.3%. The gap between supply and demand will increase from -8.1% in 2026 to -13.6% in 2027. That gap will likely remain through at least the first half of 2028. There is more capacity that will come online in 2028 or 2029 for more RAM production, but it remains to be seen if it will have any effect on supply if demand keeps growing.
Market Resilience and Upcoming Device Pricing
Apple has proven quite resilient to the RAM crisis so far, avoiding immediate price increases before through supply chain management and eating some costs. However, nothing lasts forever, and at $2.00 per Gb, prices will no doubt have to be raised again in 2027. It isn’t clear exactly how Apple might approach another round of price increases.
The financial adjustments have already touched flagship hardware, with more price increases across new products expected into the new year, and then as the iPhone 18 launches in the spring, more will likely come. The iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max increased the base model price by only $100. Apple subsidized that cost by raising higher storage tiers more, with the 2TB iPhone Duo exceeding $3,000, and it could conceivably cost even more by this time next year. That’s not necessarily a guarantee that it will cost more, as Apple might find creative ways to absorb the higher costs, but the possibility could put pressure on consumers to buy now, before already-expensive devices get even pricier.