The semiconductor component supply crisis is shaking the global tech industry once again. Apple CEO Tim Cook openly likened the current memory chip shortage to a "100-year flood," a term referring to extreme events that occur extremely rarely in history.
The statement reflects the severe degree of supply chain disruption currently taking place. Although Cook has over four decades of experience in the consumer electronics industry, he emphasized that this crisis has a scale and complexity unprecedented in his career, surpassing various supply chain challenges he has previously navigated.
The impact of this situation is directly felt by consumers through price hikes on Apple products. Starting June 25, 2026, the company officially adjusted price tags for the Mac and iPad lines. The price increases vary significantly, ranging from $100 up to $1,300 per unit for certain series—a drastic move that briefly brought Apple Store access to a standstill while price updates were processed.
In-depth analysis reveals that the root cause of this crisis is neither a pandemic nor geopolitical conflicts, but rather a surge in demand driven by the Artificial Intelligence (AI) trend. Tech giants such as Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon are currently racing to build massive data centers. This construction boom has triggered an extraordinarily huge demand for memory chips, effectively draining nearly all available stock in the global market.
Before these price increases were implemented, Tim Cook had actually issued a warning during the company's financial report two months earlier. He predicted that memory component costs would have a continuously growing impact on Apple's business cost structure. Despite prior anticipation, the speed and magnitude of this price increase's impact still came as a surprise to many within the global tech ecosystem.
