MacBook Air reportedly facing major supply shortages due to AI-driven memory crisis should be explained through that lens before any broad claim is made. The AI datacenter buildout around the US has wreaked havoc across the entire consumer electronics industry. SSDs and DDR5 RAM have shot up in price since the start of the year, and Apple finally had to adjust its pricing in late June – with everything becoming $100-400+ more across the board. The piece keeps the context, impact, and follow-up signals in view so readers do not stop at the headline.
What happened
The AI datacenter buildout around the US has wreaked havoc across the entire consumer electronics industry. All of this newly found high volume purchasing of high end HBM2 DRAM has shifted entire supply chains, making it incredibly difficult to come across consumer grade memory and storage.
Practical impact for readers
SSDs and DDR5 RAM have shot up in price since the start of the year, and Apple finally had to adjust its pricing in late June – with everything becoming $100-400+ more across the board. Despite those price hikes, the company is still struggling to keep MacBook Air in stock.
Details worth verifying
In June, Apple adjusted the price of MacBook Air from $1099 to $1299, after already raising it slightly from $999 to $1099 in March with the debut of the M5 model. Granted, the company increased the base storage configuration from 256GB to 512GB, so it actually was a net benefit if you already purchased more storage.
Who should act or wait
Nonetheless, even with the higher prices to cover the higher memory and storage costs, Apple is still struggling to keep the M5 MacBook Air in stock – despite being a relatively new computer.
What is still unclear
Pointed out by Mark Gurman , if you try to order a MacBook Air from Apple right now, you won’t get one until the very end of the month, and retail sources describe MacBook Air as “more constrained than they can ever recall.
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