Chips & Hardware
Global memory shortage squeezes Apple's MacBook Air supply
A global memory chip shortage driven by AI companies' demand is straining MacBook Air supply, with Apple raising prices, sourcing from Chinese suppliers, and delaying its back-to-school promotion, Bloomberg reports.
The global memory chip shortage — driven by demand from AI companies — is now affecting the availability of Apple’s most popular Mac, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The shortage had already hit Apple’s more niche computers, the Mac mini and Mac Studio, but the company is now struggling to keep the MacBook Air in stock, with retailers saying supply appears more constrained than ever before.
Anyone trying to buy a MacBook Air from Apple’s website currently has to wait until the back half of August, or for certain configurations, until September. Gurman says Apple is working to address the shortage by raising prices and sourcing memory from Chinese suppliers.
The company has also delayed its latest back-to-school promotion from June, and for the first time its marketing material is leaning more heavily on the base model of the MacBook Pro instead. That marketing material even carries a caveat: “MacBook Air subject to availability.”
Why it matters
The shortage shows how AI companies’ voracious appetite for memory chips is now spilling over into consumer hardware pricing and supply, a dynamic likely to keep pressuring device makers’ margins and availability through the rest of the year.