Tim Cook, Apple's outgoing chief executive, told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that price increases were "unavoidable" as the situation around memory chips had become "unsustainable".  He did not say when prices would rise or which products would be affected. It is also unclear whether the price hikes will affect the iPhone 18, which is expected to be launched in September. Memory chips are essential components in smart devices like mobile phones, but the boom in artificial intelligence (AI) has driven up their prices in recent months. "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," Cook told the WSJ. "There's less supply at a time when consumers want devices and the memory guys are passing along huge price increases”, said Cook, who is due to be replaced by John Ternus as Apple's CEO in September after 15 years in the role. "We definitely need memory pricing and supply to return to reasonable levels for consumer products. That's the bottom line."  The price of Ram, typically one of the cheapest computer components, has more than doubled since October 2025. (BBC)