Apple stockpiles inventory as it braces for 'significant supply constraints' | TechCrunch

Last day to exhibit your breakthrough to 10,000+ tech leaders at Disrupt is on Oct 2. Book Exhibit Table Now. Disrupt doors open Oct. 13. Get your pass and bring someone with you at 50% off. REGISTER NOW. As the generative AI boom drives steep demand for hardware components, Apple and other hardware makers are facing what outgoing CEO Tim Cook calls “a hundred-year flood [on] memory pricing,” which is severely impacting the cost of producing iPhones, MacBooks, and other devices. Apple described its recent earnings report as its “strongest June quarter ever,” with iPhone and Mac sales performing better than expected, growing 22% and 29%, respectively, year-over-year. Yet the company is bracing for memory shortages, known as RAMageddon, to get even worse. Apple’s biggest challenge is securing the advanced memory nodes used in its Apple silicon chips, which power the A-Series and M-Series processors used in iPhones and Macs. “We continue to expect high levels of demand. However, with less flexibility in supply chain, we expect the impact from the supply constraints to increase significantly sequentially,” Cook said on Apple’s quarterly earnings call. “We’re seeing some very significan