---
title: "From consoles to laptops, tech firms blame AI for steep price rises"
description: "Apple, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony have all raised prices on major devices in 2026, pointing to the same culprit: the AI boom is soaking up the world's supply of memory chips and driving up their cost. But analysts are divided on whether AI is the whole story — or a convenient one."
category: "Technology"
category_url: https://newsparlor.com/category/technology
author: "Lucas Silva"
published: 2026-06-27T23:08:00.000Z
updated: 2026-06-27T23:08:00.000Z
canonical: https://newsparlor.com/article/tech-firms-blame-ai-device-price-rises
tags: ["ai", "memory-chips", "dram", "consumer-electronics", "consoles", "prices"]
---
# From consoles to laptops, tech firms blame AI for steep price rises

Apple, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony have all raised prices on major devices in 2026, pointing to the same culprit: the AI boom is soaking up the world's supply of memory chips and driving up their cost. But analysts are divided on whether AI is the whole story — or a convenient one.

For a generation, new gadgets tended to cost the same as the old ones, or less. That pattern has broken. Within days of each other in late June, Apple and Microsoft raised prices across flagship products, joining Sony and Nintendo in passing on what they call an unprecedented jump in the cost of the memory chips inside nearly every device, [Al Jazeera reported](https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/6/26/apple-microsoft-hike-prices-over-surging-chip-costs).

## Who raised what

Apple lifted prices across Macs and iPads — its MacBook Air rose to $1,299 and its top Mac Studio configuration climbed sharply — while leaving iPhones and AirPods unchanged, according to Al Jazeera. "We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly," the company said, citing demand from AI data centers.

Microsoft followed, [announcing in an Xbox Wire post](https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2026/06/25/xbox-console-price-update/) that Xbox console prices would rise by $100 to $150 from August 1, saying "console storage and memory prices have increased by more than 2.5x." Sony had already raised the PlayStation 5 earlier in the year, and Nintendo's Switch 2 is set to rise to $499.99 in September, [trade outlets reported](https://www.techtimes.com/articles/318844/20260622/nintendo-switch-2-price-hike-49999-ai-memory-crisis-sets-september-deadline.htm). Consoles are especially exposed, since they are often sold near or below cost, with profits recouped on games.

## The memory math

The common thread is memory. AI servers devour high-bandwidth memory (HBM), a specialized, high-margin form of DRAM, and when chipmakers shift production lines to make it, they make fewer of the conventional chips that go into laptops, phones and consoles. The research firm [TrendForce reported](https://www.trendforce.com/presscenter/news/20260601-13070.html) that conventional DRAM contract prices surged roughly 90 percent or more quarter-on-quarter in early 2026, and analysts say memory now makes up a far larger share of a laptop's component cost than a year ago. New factory capacity from Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron is not expected to arrive in volume until late 2027 at the earliest.

## Is AI the whole story?

Not everyone is convinced AI deserves all the blame. Skeptics point to other forces: US import tariffs on memory from South Korea and Japan introduced in 2025, which tightened supply; and a deliberate choice by the three dominant memory makers to steer capacity toward higher-margin HBM rather than expand overall output, keeping prices high for everyone. There is also history. Willy Shih, a semiconductor expert at Harvard Business School who has tracked memory cycles since the 1980s, told [Fortune](https://fortune.com/2026/05/11/ai-memory-chips-semiconductor-stock-boom-price-hikes-dram-shortage-hbm/) that such spikes never last: "Anytime people show me these curves that just go to the sky with no end, that never continues forever. This too will pass." He sees the 2026 crunch as the same cyclical pattern as past shortages, larger in scale but not different in kind.

## What it means for buyers

Whether AI is the primary driver or a useful frame for increases that also reflect trade policy, supply discipline and genuine demand, the effect on consumers is the same: devices that grew cheaper almost every year are now getting more expensive. Analysts warn that even iPhones, spared so far, could be next if component costs stay elevated — and that the squeeze is likely to persist at least through 2027.