Overview
- On June 28, 2026, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez publicly urged Congress to break up large tech firms and boost consumer protections in direct response to Apple’s announced price increases.
- Apple said it raised prices on several MacBooks, iPads and other devices because a rapid expansion of AI data centers has driven an extraordinary surge in demand for memory and storage that raised its costs.
- Industry analysts attribute the memory shortage to data centers buying large volumes of RAM and storage, a dynamic that has produced reported consumer price increases in the $200–$500 range or roughly 15–25% on some models.
- Markets reacted to the price moves with a short-term drop in Apple’s share price, which fell to about $283.78 by the end of the week after starting the week near $301.
- Lawmakers note the 2022 CHIPS Act was written before the current AI-driven data-center boom and are debating antitrust measures, industrial policy revisions and proposals such as a moratorium on new AI data centers, though no new legislation has been enacted.