New York, June 19, 2026, 05:04 EDT
- Apple will hike prices soon, citing higher memory and storage costs. CEO Tim Cook said the price moves are “unavoidable.” Reuters
- Micron ended at an all-time high. Investors are betting that the memory shortage could boost pricing power for suppliers.
- Gasoline prices are dropping, but costs for phones, laptops and servers are climbing.
Apple will hike prices to make up for higher memory and storage chip costs, tying AI expansion more clearly to consumer device prices. CEO Tim Cook told The Wall Street Journal that “price increases are unavoidable” after Apple had tried to cover the rising costs, Reuters reported. Reuters
Gas prices are down. AAA said the average for regular gasoline in the U.S. dropped to $3.973 a gallon on June 19, dipping below $4 for the first time since March. Drivers are catching a break, but consumers could see higher costs next in devices, not at the pump.
Memory parts like DRAM and NAND aren’t staying in the background anymore. DRAM runs apps and operating systems, NAND stores data, and high-bandwidth memory is stacked up for AI accelerators. All of them are getting pulled into data centers, where customers are willing to pay higher prices. TrendForce sees conventional DRAM contract prices jumping 58% to 63% quarter-on-quarter in the second quarter. NAND Flash prices are set to rise even more, up 70% to 75%, according to .
Cook didn’t specify which Apple products might get more expensive, or give a timeline or size for the price hikes. He pointed out DRAM as a main issue, saying more supply is going to high-bandwidth memory for AI servers.
Micron finished the session at $1,133.99, up $89.41. SanDisk jumped $228.27 to $2,184.75 and Western Digital added $34.58 to $746.23 in U.S. trading. U.S. markets are shut Friday for Juneteenth.
Micron logged its 35th record close of the year, Barron’s reported, and its market cap hit around $1.3 trillion. Barron’s wrote that the rally was driven less by Apple’s demand itself than by the fact that a big, steady buyer is now showing the tight memory supply is reaching the end market.
Deutsche Bank’s Melissa Weathers boosted her Micron target to $1,500 from $1,000 and stuck with a Buy call, according to Barchart. Weathers told clients the imbalance may run “well into 2028,” which could explain why some investors see the cyclical memory name as scarce infrastructure. Barchart.com
Apple is warning while still looking strong. March-quarter revenue hit $111.2 billion, up 17% from last year. Diluted earnings per share rose 22% to $2.01. The company also approved another $100 billion for stock buybacks.
Micron’s message has stayed consistent from the supplier perspective. CEO Sanjay Mehrotra called memory “a strategic asset” in its recent investor materials. The company is scheduled to report fiscal Q3 earnings on June 24. Micron Technology
Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, along with Micron, get a boost when demand from AI customers eats into supply. Apple faces a different squeeze. Cloud buyers can call those memory purchases long-term investments, but Apple sees costs in iPhones and Macs show up right in its margins.
But demand is the issue. Counterpoint Research says global smartphone shipments could drop 13.9% this year to 1.08 billion units, the biggest yearly decline on record. Lower-end phones are set to take the biggest hit, with higher memory costs making them tougher to build. Apple and Samsung may do better, but expensive phones are still slowing upgrades.
Apple is making it clear it won’t keep eating higher memory costs. That could help memory suppliers, but the price question lands on buyers. Consumers now face how much extra they’ll pay for AI-grade chips in their next device—phone, tablet, or laptop.
