Tim Cook, Elon Musk Warn Memory Chip Shortage Is a "Hundred-Year Flood" Driving Price Hikes

Former $AAPL CEO Tim Cook told the Wall Street Journal in June that surging memory and storage chip costs amounted to "a hundred-year flood," saying, "I've never seen anything like it in any area in over 40 years," according to TheStreet. Cook attributed the shortage to AI data centers competing for the same components used in consumer devices, and said price increases were "unavoidable."
$TSLA and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk quoted Cook's comments on X, adding, "Biggest price jump in anything I've ever seen too," per Yahoo Finance, and separately shared a Wall Street Journal piece arguing that America's AI buildout is driving a "third wave of inflation" across consumer prices.
Memory and storage chip prices have quadrupled over the past three quarters as AI-server demand absorbs supply, with Micron's gross margins jumping to 84.9% from 39% a year earlier. $AAPL has since raised MacBook and iPad prices by $100 to $300, while Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and Nintendo have also raised prices. A research firm estimated the upcoming iPhone Pro could rise more than $200, toward roughly $1,299. Separately, BlackRock estimated that the Middle East conflict could add roughly 0.8 percentage points to global headline inflation.