The last time Apple CEO Tim Cook used language this blunt in a public interview, the tech world paid attention. And this week, he’s done it again. In a Wall Street Journal interview published June 17, 2026, Cook confirmed that price increases across Apple’s product lineup are “unavoidable” due to the global RAM and storage chip shortage, calling the crisis a “hundred-year flood.” The words landed hard. And honestly, they should.
This isn’t speculation anymore. It’s straight from the top.
What Tim Cook Actually Said About the RAM Shortage
Cook’s statement to the WSJ was one of the most direct acknowledgments Apple has made about the current memory crisis. “Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable,” he said. “We’re doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we’ve been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable.”
He went further, comparing the global RAM shortage to something he’s never encountered in his 40-plus years in the industry. “I’ve never seen anything like it in any area in over 40 years,” Cook told the Journal. The shortage, he explained, is being driven by an explosion in AI data center demand, with hyperscalers like Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon signing massive, multi-year memory contracts that are pulling supply away from consumer electronics.
What I find interesting here is how carefully Cook worded his statement. He declined to name specific products or price ranges. No exact numbers, no timelines. But the signal is crystal clear to anyone paying attention. Apple’s next major product launch is the iPhone 18 lineup in September, and the writing is on the wall.
How Apple’s RAM Supply Advantage Collapsed
For most of 2025, Apple managed to stay out of the RAM crisis conversation in a way that other brands couldn’t. The company had long-term agreements in place with Samsung and SK Hynix that locked in lower memory prices. Those agreements, however, have expired.
According to industry sources, Samsung proposed a 100% price hike for LPDDR5X RAM supplied to Apple, and Apple immediately accepted. That alone tells you how desperate the supply situation has become. An official from the semiconductor industry noted the situation bluntly: Samsung initially set a strategy to raise prices by around 60% but proposed 100% to test the waters, and Apple agreed on the spot. That’s not the behavior of a company with leverage. That’s a company scrambling to secure supply at any cost.
The MacBook Pro lineup already reflects this new reality. When Apple launched the M5 MacBook Pro in March 2026, prices jumped between $100 and $400 across all configurations. The 14-inch M5 Pro MacBook Pro now starts at $2,199, up from $1,999. The 16-inch M5 Max version starts at $3,599, a full $400 more than its predecessor. The MacBook Air also got hit, with the 13-inch model rising from $999 to $1,099.
Which Apple Products Are Most at Risk of Price Increases
The iPhone 18 lineup, expected to launch this September, is where things get complicated. Tim Cook declined to confirm exact products or timing during the WSJ interview, which is exactly the kind of diplomatic non-answer that tells you something significant is coming.
Research firm TechInsights has estimated that the cost of the upcoming iPhone Pro could go up by more than $200, potentially pushing the device to around $1,299 for the base 256GB model. That’s a meaningful jump. Sources suggest that Apple is also considering not discounting older iPhones when the iPhone 18 launches, which would be another way of quietly passing costs to consumers without triggering the same headline reaction as an outright price hike.
After looking into this more closely, I can tell you that Apple’s Mac mini situation is also telling. The company removed the $599 base model configuration with 256GB storage from its store, effectively raising the entry price to $799. Multiple Mac Studio and Mac Mini RAM configurations have been pulled entirely. These aren’t random inventory decisions.
The Bigger Picture: Why This RAM Crisis Is Different
This isn’t the chip shortage of 2021. That was a COVID-related supply disruption that eventually resolved. This one is structural. Memory manufacturers like Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron have redirected their production capacity toward high-bandwidth memory for AI servers, which are far more profitable than consumer DRAM. And with AI companies signing long-term prepayment deals worth billions of dollars, consumer electronics companies are simply not the priority customer anymore.
IDC research notes that memory accounts for roughly 10 to 20% of the total cost to build a smartphone. With prices tripling in some segments since late 2025, that math is brutal for everyone, but it’s especially brutal for brands without Apple’s cash reserves and premium margins. TrendForce has projected that mainstream laptop prices could rise by as much as 40% across the broader PC market. Many PC makers are already anticipating 15 to 20% higher prices in the second half of 2026.
What most articles missed is that Apple’s own push for on-device AI is making the situation worse for itself. The iPhone 18 is expected to include 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM, a bump from 8GB in the standard iPhone 17. That means Apple needs more of the most expensive, most in-demand memory type in the industry for a product launching right in the middle of the worst RAM shortage in modern consumer tech history.
When Will the Shortage End? What Analysts Are Saying
I’ve been following the RAM crisis coverage closely since late 2025, and the timeline projections from analysts have only gotten gloomier as the year has progressed. IDC expects RAM prices to stabilize around mid-2027 at the earliest. Most analysts predict the crunch will persist well into 2028 before new factory capacity from Samsung and SK Hynix comes online in meaningful volumes.
In the meantime, Cook’s upcoming exit from Apple adds a layer of significance to his statement. Cook steps down as CEO on September 1, handing the reins to John Ternus. Some MacRumors forum members have speculated that Cook is effectively delivering the bad news himself so Ternus doesn’t have to do it at his first major product announcement. That’s plausible, and if true, it’s actually a thoughtful move.
Industry insiders hint that Apple may explore a hybrid approach for the iPhone 18 lineup, keeping base storage models at familiar price points while significantly raising prices on higher storage configurations. A staggered release strategy is also in the picture, with the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max launching in fall 2026 and the standard iPhone 18 arriving in spring 2027.
Sources suggest that Apple is unlikely to resolve its memory supply challenges until at least 2028, and if anything, the demand pressure will increase as Apple Intelligence features require more on-device RAM to function properly. If the current trajectory holds, it looks like consumers who need higher-memory Macs or want premium iPhones will face the biggest price jumps of the decade.
The situation has become genuinely difficult for a company that has spent years arguing that its products represent good value for what they offer. Price increases were coming one way or another. Cook has simply made it official.
