AI Cost Pass-Through to End Users Triggers Revaluation of Computing Power Trades; Memory Chip Stocks Drop Over 5% Pre-Market
Miles Bennett
Apple and Microsoft raised prices on the same day, blaming soaring memory and storage costs. Memory chip stocks fell over 5% pre-market as the market asks: can consumers actually absorb AI's ballooning hardware bill?
Apple and Microsoft hiked prices the same day — what happened?
Apple announced global price increases of roughly 20% on Macs, iPads and other products Thursday, citing supply tightness caused by AI data centers hoarding memory and storage chips.
MacBook Air rose from $1,099 to $1,299; the 14-inch entry MacBook Pro from $1,699 to $1,999; the 11-inch iPad Pro from $999 to $1,199.
Microsoft raised Xbox console prices for the third time on the same day, reinforcing the picture of component shortages pushing up costs across consumer tech.
How far did memory and optical stocks fall?
Pre-market June 26: Micron and SanDisk dropped nearly 5%, Western Digital nearly 4%, Seagate over 3%.
Optical communications fell in tandem — Tower Semiconductor down over 6%; Marvell, Coherent and AXT down nearly 4%; Credo Technology, Astera Labs and others down over 3%.
This means → the market's read has flipped: memory-chip price hikes are no longer "strong demand" good news — they are "runaway costs" bad news.
Why did Asian markets crack first?
On Friday, Asia led the sell-off: SK Hynix and Samsung fell over 10% intraday, Kioxia plunged 14%, MediaTek dropped 10%.
South Korea's Kospi fell 10% in a single session and triggered a circuit breaker — the second time this week.
Apple shares slid 6.1% to $275.15, erasing over $260 billion in market cap in one day; the MSCI Asia-Pacific IT index dropped 6.4%.
The core debate: is memory-chip strength bullish or bearish?
Saxo Markets chief investment strategist Charu Chanana: "The market no longer treats strong memory as an automatic positive for the whole AI trade."
In plain terms = investors used to see memory-chip price hikes and think "AI demand is booming — bullish for semis." Now the first reaction is "costs are too high — end consumers can't afford this."
She added: "A stronger memory cycle today could weigh on the entire AI supply chain tomorrow, and the market has already started pricing that in."
OpenAI delayed its IPO — why does it matter so much right now?
The New York Times reported OpenAI may push its IPO to 2027. SoftBank shares fell 14% in Tokyo on the same day.
This reflects fears of a simultaneous cool-down in AI sentiment across public and private markets — just weeks after tech-stock weekly inflows hit a record $12.3 billion.
Lombard Odier macro head Florian Ielpo called the pullback "more of a reassessment of the market's most crowded positions" than a systemic macro liquidation.
What to watch next?
A new UBS note, citing China's CAICT data, showed Apple iPhone sales in China fell 19% year-on-year in May — adding a demand headwind on top of the storage-cost squeeze.
Apple has not yet raised iPhone prices; analysts believe this clears the runway for the autumn launch — but if storage costs keep climbing, the pricing pressure is deferred, not eliminated.
The Nasdaq 100 is set for its first weekly decline in three weeks, though it still holds the 50-day moving average — a technical gauge of medium-term trend — and sits roughly 28% above its March low. Whether AI costs can keep being passed on to consumers as end demand softens will be the pivotal variable for this cycle's compute-investment thesis.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.