Apple has agreed to pay Samsung even higher prices for RAM and storage chips starting in the first quarter of 2027, according to a DigiTimes report this week citing an earlier report from Chinese publication Jiemian News.
Apple has reportedly agreed to pay nearly $2 per GB of DRAM and $0.33 per GB of NAND storage. This is a 30% to 40% increase in pricing for these chips compared to what Apple is paying in the third quarter of 2026, according to DigiTimes.
It is unclear if this reported agreement will lead Apple to further raise prices on products like iPhones, iPads, and Macs, or if the company has already factored in the more expensive components in early 2027 into its current 2026 prices.
AI companies have been building out massive data centers, leading to a memory chip shortage that has driven up the prices of RAM and NAND storage chips. Apple has raised prices on a wide range of products since June, with former CEO Tim Cook calling the increases "unavoidable" due to the chip shortage, which he likened to a "100-year flood."
In June, Apple raised prices on all Macs and iPads, as well as the Apple TV, HomePod, HomePod mini, and Vision Pro, with many of the increases ranging from $100 to $300. In addition, iPhone 18 Pro starting prices are $100 higher in the U.S. compared to the iPhone 17 Pro models, and older iPhones have gone up in price too.
