Tech price hikes will continue and you can blame AI

Perhaps the most visible impact of the AI industry right now is the rising cost of consumer electronics. Price hikes are happening left and right, and while smartphones have largely held up so far, it no longer feels sustainable, and you can blame AI for that.

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Watching tech prices this year has been a game of if, not when. Virtually every major product has seen some kind of price increase, and this week two big brands came under pressure from rising costs.

Microsoft has yet to release else Xbox price hike, but the bigger domino was Apple, which announced price hikes on basically everything except the iPhone, AirPods and Apple Watch – give it time. as 9-5Mac detailed, these aren’t small price increases either, adding hundreds of dollars on top of existing prices for many products, including Apple’s MacBook line.

This is a significant turning point, as Apple was one of the biggest obstacles to price increases. Motorola, Samsung, Lenovo, Sony and countless other big tech brands announced the first waves of price hikes months ago, but Apple kept at it.

Google is the only notable obstacle, but now it’s inevitable, almost inevitable, that the Pixel will be affected in one way or another.

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And ultimately it’s all these big tech brands that are to blame.

Engadget put the besti think “We’re all trying to find the guy who did it.”

Microsoft announced the Xbox price hike, but didn’t admit that the company itself was to blame, along with every major AI player. The spike in storage and memory demand that comes with the boom in AI products and services is directly responsible for why your favorite tech is getting more expensive.

Another take on all of this is – can these companies survive this backlash? Data centers and their impact on local water and electricity have already been established a lot from public reaction. Raising the price of a new console? Their new phone? This is how you do it indeed personal.

Microsoft itself admits that this problem will not go away – it will just be bought a lot it will only get worse over the next year or two.

We hoped that no further price increases would be necessary and we have spent the last few months working with suppliers on options. Unfortunately, console storage and memory prices have increased more than 2.5 times, and we expect another doubling by the fall of 2027. The entire consumer electronics industry is struggling with the current component crisis…

It just doesn’t seem sustainable, certainly not for products that will be released in the next few months. Galaxy Z Fold 8, Pixel 11, iPhone 18 and more, it’s all there a lot it will be much more expensive, not because of any drastic improvements.

This is a vicious cycle. For example, Google builds everything Around the AI, including the hardware, and the effects of the lack of memory will inevitably affect the Pixel 11’s price tag. Everyone’s desire to create AI products requires better AI, which requires more resources and ultimately drives up prices, making those products unaffordable.

However, the AI train continues to roll.

When will the tracks explode?

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