{"id":276959,"date":"2026-06-20T09:26:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T13:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/20\/apple-faces-price-hikes-for-iphone-18-pro-as-ai-fueled-chip-shortage-bites\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T10:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T14:00:12","slug":"apple-faces-price-hikes-for-iphone-18-pro-as-ai-fueled-chip-shortage-bites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/20\/apple-faces-price-hikes-for-iphone-18-pro-as-ai-fueled-chip-shortage-bites\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple faces price hikes for iPhone 18 Pro as AI-fueled chip shortage bites"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apple faces price hikes for iPhone 18 Pro as AI-fueled chip shortage bites<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/cryptobriefing.com\/apple-iphone-18-pro-price-hike-chip-shortage-2\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-06-20 09:26:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: cryptobriefing.com<\/a><\/p>\n

The iPhone has gotten more expensive before. But a potential $1,299 starting price for the iPhone 18 Pro would represent something different: not a premium upsell, but a cost-driven increase forced by a global memory chip shortage that Apple can no longer absorb.<\/p>\n

In a Wall Street Journal interview published June 17, Apple CEO Tim Cook said price hikes across Apple\u2019s product lineup are \u201cunavoidable\u201d as memory chip costs surge. The culprit is AI, which has hoovered up manufacturing capacity for high-bandwidth memory used in data centers, leaving consumer electronics fighting over what\u2019s left.<\/p>\n

The numbers behind the squeeze<\/h2>\n

According to TechInsights analyst Mike Howard, the cost of 12GB LPDDR5X DRAM, the type of memory used in flagship smartphones, has jumped from $39 to $145. That\u2019s a 272% increase.<\/p>\n

NAND flash storage hasn\u2019t fared much better. The price for 256GB NAND has climbed from $13 to $51, a 292% surge. These aren\u2019t niche components. They\u2019re in every iPhone, iPad, and Mac that Apple ships.<\/p>\n

Forecasts now peg the iPhone 18 Pro base model at $1,299 to $1,399 in the US market. That would make it the first time Apple has pushed the Pro\u2019s entry price past the $1,200 mark, a psychological threshold the company has carefully avoided for years.<\/p>\n

Why AI is eating your phone\u2019s memory supply<\/h2>\n

Data centers powering AI models from the likes of Nvidia, Google, and Microsoft require enormous quantities of high-bandwidth memory, or HBM. That memory is manufactured on the same wafers used to produce the LPDDR5X DRAM and NAND flash that go into smartphones and laptops. In 2026, AI-driven demand is consuming the lion\u2019s share of available wafer capacity.<\/p>\n

Apple has historically insulated itself from supply shocks through long-term contracts with memory suppliers like Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron. Those agreements locked in prices and guaranteed volume. But the current shortage is so acute that even Apple\u2019s purchasing power isn\u2019t…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apple faces price hikes for iPhone 18 Pro as AI-fueled chip shortage bites https:\/\/cryptobriefing.com\/apple-iphone-18-pro-price-hike-chip-shortage-2\/ Publish…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":276960,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static.cryptobriefing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20092610\/iphone-18-pro-concept-design-from-aptenod-on-youtube-1-800x420.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[120],"tags":[81],"class_list":["post-276959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iphone","tag-iphone-18"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276959"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276959"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":276961,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276959\/revisions\/276961"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}