Apple, a corporation with immense market power, has begun raising prices on select iPads, MacBooks, HomePod speakers, and Apple TV devices, directly transferring the soaring costs of memory and storage chips to its customers. This move comes as the global buildout of Artificial Intelligence (AI) infrastructure fuels “blockbuster” earnings for semiconductor manufacturers and related industries, demonstrating how the expansion of capital in one sector is financed by increased extraction from the working class in another.
The MacBook Neo’s starting price moved from $599 to $699, months after its launch. The MacBook Air with 512GB of storage rose to $1,299 from $1,099, while the 14-inch MacBook Pro with 1TB of storage increased to $1,999 from $1,699. The iPad Air with 128GB of storage now costs $749, up from $599. Apple’s home devices also saw price hikes, with the HomePod mini rising to $129 from $99 and the HomePod to $349 from $299. The Apple TV device increased to $199 from $129.
Apple stated it can no longer fully shield customers from these soaring memory and storage chip costs, which are tied directly to AI data center demand. Tim Cook, Apple's outgoing CEO, had previously warned that memory costs would increasingly affect Apple later in 2026, and the company now claims it has reached the point of needing to pass these costs to consumers.
Capital's New Frontier
The pressure on chip supply, dubbed “RAMageddon” by some in the tech industry, stems from the immense demand for DRAM and high-bandwidth memory required to train and run advanced AI models in data centers. These are the same basic chip categories that power consumer devices like phones, laptops, and tablets.
Micron reported a “blockbuster” quarter, more than quadrupling its revenue from a year ago and issuing guidance for the current quarter well above Wall Street’s expectations. The company also announced 16 long-term supply agreements with data center operators, automakers, and other customers, securing future revenue streams from the AI boom. This surge lifted other memory and storage companies, including SanDisk and Western Digital, as well as equipment manufacturers Applied Materials and Lam Research.
Corning, a supplier of fiber-optic products critical to AI data centers, saw its shares climb to fresh record highs. This resulted in a gain of roughly 160% on shares purchased about 8 months ago, illustrating the rapid accumulation of wealth for those positioned to profit from AI infrastructure.
The AI data center buildout is also creating a boom for the gas turbine industry. GE Vernova’s largest gas turbine plant in Greenville, South Carolina, is speeding up production, having hired 200 workers about one year ago and expecting 300 more later in 2026. Prices of gas turbines have surged more than 300% since the third year, indicating significant profit margins for manufacturers.
The Burden on Labor
While the iPhone was not included in this round of price increases, analysts expect Apple may raise iPhone prices in the coming months. Apple may attempt to manage consumer discontent by raising only Pro model prices, adjusting storage tiers, leaning on carrier promotions, or pushing trade-in offers harder to “soften the blow,” rather than absorbing the costs or fundamentally altering its profit-driven model.
Earlier this year, Apple agreed to a $250 million settlement tied to claims that it overstated or delayed certain AI features connected to Siri and Apple Intelligence. Despite Apple denying wrongdoing, this settlement represents a minor cost of doing business for a corporation of its size, rather than a structural challenge to its practices of capital accumulation.
The State Secures Capital
The New York Times reported that advanced chip packaging, a niche technology, has become a choke point, increasing U.S. reliance on Taiwan for AI-grade packaging. This dependency is framed as creating “geopolitical and supply-chain risk” and raising “national-security and industrial policy concerns,” highlighting how the state’s primary concern is to secure the supply lines and interests of transnational corporations rather than the welfare of the working class.
Wall Street experienced a volatile week, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite falling 4.6% and the S&P 500 slipping 1.95%. However, the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.6%, buoyed by gains in economically sensitive stocks like Sherwin-Williams, Caterpillar, and Home Depot, as well as healthcare stocks. FedEx also reported earnings topping Wall Street’s expectations, noting that higher-margin businesses such as healthcare, aerospace, automotive, and AI-related data center logistics were driving momentum, further illustrating the selective concentration of capital in sectors serving the dominant economic order.