Apple and Microsoft hardware have both raised prices, with demand for AI chips driving up storage costs, potentially kicking off a wave of consumer electronics price hikes.

Apple and Microsoft have successively announced price hikes for their hardware products, which the market interprets as an early signal that surging demand for AI computing power is driving up storage chip costs and eventually passing those costs to consumers. For Apple, the starting price of the MacBook Neo has been raised from $599 to $699, the MacBook Air to $1,299, and the MacBook Pro to $1,999. The iPad Pro’s price has jumped sharply from $999 to $1,199, while the iPad Air is adjusted to $749. For Microsoft, just hours after Apple’s announcement, the tech giant followed suit, raising prices for its Xbox gaming console line citing rising storage chip costs: the 512GB Xbox Series S is up $100 to $499; the 1TB Xbox Series S and 1TB Xbox Series X each increased by $150, adjusted to $599 and $799 respectively; the Xbox Series X Digital Edition also rose to $749. Analysts point out that the root cause of this round of price hikes is that massive capital spending on AI continues to boost demand for storage chips such as HBM and NAND, leading to tighter supply and higher costs for chips needed in consumer electronics. The two tech giants’ successive hardware price hikes in a short span are viewed by the market as the start of an "AI-driven consumer electronics price surge", and whether other hardware makers will follow suit is under close watch.