Overview
- Apple has raised prices on several MacBook and iPad models, with some increases around $200 and company leaders saying the move responds to an extraordinary surge in demand for memory and storage.
- CEO Tim Cook told the Wall Street Journal the price hikes were unavoidable as AI data centers have pushed up component costs, and Apple’s stock fell after the announcement from about $301 to roughly $283.78 per share.
- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez argued these developments show concentrated corporate power and urged Congress to pursue breakups of very large tech firms and stronger consumer protections.
- Ocasio-Cortez has introduced legislation to bar construction of new AI data centers and expansion of existing ones until national safeguards are in place, a proposal similar to one from Sen. Bernie Sanders.
- Critics say the 2022 CHIPS Act was written before the current AI data-center boom and does not address the sudden memory and storage demand, raising calls for updates to semiconductor and energy policy and for oversight of data-center growth.