Apple is anticipating “considerably greater reminiscence prices” heading into the rest of 2026, CEO Tim Prepare dinner stated Thursday throughout Apple’s second-quarter earnings name, because the tech big faces down the memory shortage impacting the remainder of the business.
Prepare dinner — who’s stepping down as CEO on Sept. 1 and might be changed by John Ternus, the corporate’s senior vp of {hardware} engineering — stated Apple was partially unaffected by the reminiscence scarcity throughout this quarter, because it already had a number of units in inventory. However past June, prices will rise.
“We imagine reminiscence price will drive an rising influence on our enterprise, and we’ll proceed to judge this,” Prepare dinner stated. “We’ll have a look at a spread of choices.”
As AI data centers proceed to be constructed to fulfill rising demand for AI companies, their want for reminiscence and different parts has decreased the provision for shopper units, driving up the prices of laptops and telephones like Apple’s MacBooks and the iPhone, in addition to external storage products.
Analysts are taking a look at how Apple will meet demand amid elevated reminiscence prices and provide constraints within the coming quarters, stated Nabila Popal, senior analysis director on the Worldwide Knowledge Company.
“Whereas Apple stays higher positioned than its opponents to handle the reminiscence disaster and get the provision it wants, the important thing query might be deciding the proper stability strategically between rising costs and sustaining profitability or specializing in gaining share by not rising costs,” Popal stated.
Prepare dinner stated the present main constraint is the “availability of superior nodes our SOCs are produced on,” reasonably than reminiscence, which has affected the iPhone. Going ahead, he stated this may possible additionally influence the Mac Mini, Mac Studio and MacBook Neo particularly, given their synthetic intelligence instruments and recognition.
Clients have pounced on the desktop Mac Mini and Mac Studio to make use of with AI brokers, Prepare dinner stated, and it could take a number of months for the provision of these computer systems to get well. He did not say when the MacBook Neo can be restocked to fulfill demand.
“The client response to Mac Neo has simply been off the charts, with higher-than-expected demand and the March quarter report for purchasers,” Prepare dinner stated.
Total for the quarter, Apple introduced income of $111 billion, up 17%, which Prepare dinner largely attributed to the “extraordinary demand for the iPhone 17 lineup.”
In the course of the name, Prepare dinner highlighted Apple Intelligence AI options built-in into the iPhone 17 as a driver of its reputation, together with its improved digital camera, design, efficiency and sturdiness.
“We’re seeing double-digit development within the majority of the markets we observe,” Prepare dinner stated. “And we set a brand new March quarter report for upgraders as properly.”
With US corporations now capable of apply for refunds on duties they paid to the US authorities because of President Donald Trump’s overseas tariffs in 2025, Prepare dinner stated Apple is following the method and can “reinvest any quantity we obtain again into US innovation and superior manufacturing.”
Trump had invoked the 1977 Worldwide Emergency Financial Powers Act to justify elevating taxes on objects imported from throughout the globe final yr, however the Supreme Courtroom struck down these tariffs in February. Previous to the ruling — which stated the emergency powers regulation didn’t authorize using tariffs to counter nationwide emergencies — the US authorities collected round $166 billion in revenue from US corporations, together with Apple.
Apple on AI
When requested about AI, Apple famous that it’s “clearly investing extra” throughout working expenditure and R&D. Whereas AI is “a very necessary funding space for Apple,” the corporate might be exploring it incrementally on high of its typical product improvement and launch.
Based on business analyst Emarketer, Apple’s AI technique and its partnership with Google Gemini for Siri might be very important transferring ahead.
“The outcomes counsel Apple is continuous to climate the worldwide reminiscence chip crunch, pointing to the tech big’s provide chain resilience,” Emarketer senior tech analyst Jacob Bourne stated in an announcement. “The query is whether or not incoming CEO John Ternus can translate this momentum into a reputable AI technique (and) Apple’s willingness to lean on exterior AI innovators.”
In the course of the earnings name, Prepare dinner would not be drawn on what to anticipate subsequent from the Siri AI overhaul past teasing its impending arrival, nor did he touch upon the rise of AI brokers in telephones (and the way it would possibly play into future iPhones). However he did acknowledge that the collaboration with Google on AI goes properly, saying, “We’re proud of the place issues are, and we’re proud of the work that we’re doing independently as properly.”
And although Prepare dinner might be CEO for yet one more full quarter and its subsequent earnings report, when requested if he had any recommendation for his successor, Ternus, he famous that one of the vital necessary choices he’ll make is the place to spend his time — ideally, the place it will likely be of best profit to the corporate and its prospects. And likewise, to always remember Apple’s north star.
“We’re about making the very best merchandise on this planet that basically enrich different individuals’s lives,” Prepare dinner stated. “In the event you preserve specializing in that and make your choices round that, it’s going to produce an awesome enterprise, and we’ll be capable to construct extra merchandise and do it yet again.”
