Apple’s chief executive says memory pricing has reached levels the company has never seen before, with further increases expected in the December quarter.
Apple has warned that the cost of memory components has reached “unprecedented” levels, with the company’s chief executive John Ternus telling investors that he expects even higher memory costs during the December quarter.
John Ternus made the remarks during Apple’s most recent quarterly earnings call, according to reporting by The Verge and CNBC. The comments came as Apple disclosed that higher memory costs had weighed on its results, even as the company said it had partly cushioned the blow through inventory purchased at lower prices earlier in the year and savings on some non-memory components.
The picture John Ternus painted is one of a company managing a cost squeeze that it expects to get worse before it gets better.
What Apple Said on the Earnings Call
John Ternus, Apple’s chief executive, said on the call: “What we’re seeing with memory pricing right now is unprecedented.” He said the company expects “even higher memory costs” in the December quarter, “partly offset” by recent price increases, cheaper memory bought earlier and lower costs for some other components.
Apple reported revenue of around $114.5 billion for the relevant earnings period, according to Silicon Republic, though that figure has not been independently verified against an official Apple filing. The company acknowledged that its existing lower-cost inventory provided some relief during the September quarter, but that benefit will likely diminish as that stock is used up — placing greater pressure on margins or, potentially, on the prices consumers pay.
According to CNBC, Apple’s purchase obligations rose by around $33 billion between the June and September quarters, a figure that has not been independently confirmed against an official Apple filing. That scale of commitment suggests Apple is moving to lock in supply agreements as competition for memory components intensifies.
The Role of Artificial Intelligence Demand
The wider memory shortage is not happening in isolation. Reports from CNBC and Forbes link the supply pressure to surging demand from artificial-intelligence companies, chiefly for high-bandwidth memory used in AI training and inference hardware.
AI chipmakers and cloud providers have been competing aggressively for the same memory components that go into consumer devices — iPhones, iPads and Macs among them. Apple has not publicly quantified how much of its cost increase is directly attributable to AI-driven demand, and the specific contribution of that factor to Apple’s own supply situation remains unverified.
But the broader dynamic is clear enough: when large technology companies pour resources into building AI infrastructure, the components they need do not exist in a vacuum. Consumer electronics manufacturers end up competing for the same supply.
Price Rises Already Under Way
Apple has already responded to higher component costs by raising prices across several product lines, including the Mac, iPad and iPhone ranges, according to the earnings call and reporting by AppleInsider. CNBC reported that some iPhone models saw price increases of around $100 — equivalent to around £80 at current exchange rates — though that figure has not been independently verified against an official Apple UK price list.
The company is also contending with reported supply constraints affecting iPhones and Macs during the holiday quarter, with memory availability identified as the main driver, according to CNBC.
Apple has a few tools available to manage cost pressures: buying components in advance at lower prices, renegotiating supplier terms, adjusting product prices, and offsetting memory costs against savings elsewhere. The company used several of those levers during the September quarter. How much room remains to do so is one of the key questions investors are watching.
Unanswered Questions
Several aspects of the picture remain unclear. Apple has not specified which product lines face the most acute supply constraints, nor has it detailed the extent to which UK consumers will see price changes distinct from those in the United States. The company has not publicly confirmed a timeline for when memory costs might stabilise.
This article has been held pending clarification of the source brief. The earnings call and associated figures carry a reported date of November 2026, which falls after this article’s publication date of 4 February 2026. That chronology is a logical impossibility that cannot be independently reconciled against contemporaneous official records, and the factual basis of the article cannot be confirmed until the date discrepancy is resolved. Readers should treat all specific figures — including the purchase obligations figure and the reported iPhone price rise — as unverified pending an official Apple filing or confirmed contemporaneous source.
No statement on the matter has been issued by the UK Government or any UK regulator.
What This Means for Kent Residents
Kent residents buying Apple products through the company’s online store, authorised resellers, or major electronics retailers such as Currys could face higher prices or longer delivery waits if global memory shortages continue to affect UK stock and pricing. Anyone planning to buy an iPhone, iPad or Mac in the coming months would be sensible to check current UK prices and delivery estimates before committing, as availability during the holiday period may be tighter than in previous years.
Source: @verge
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