A world scarcity of reminiscence chips is inflicting Apple’s best-selling laptop computer to turn into extraordinarily tough to acquire.
For Li Mu (a pseudonym), who’s getting ready to purchase a MacBook Air for the back-to-school season, this summer time has felt particularly lengthy. Just lately, he positioned an order on Apple’s official web site for a 13-inch MacBook Air with 24GB of RAM and an M5 chip; the order reveals an estimated supply date between September 1 and September 8. Nonetheless, when he known as native Apple Approved Resellers to inquire, a number of shops responded that there’s at present no inventory out there and that supply instances can’t be assured.
Li Mu’s expertise is just not an remoted case. Time Finance has noticed that experiences of MacBook Air shortages are widespread throughout a number of social platforms. Supply instances on the official web site have been prolonged, bodily shops wrestle to take care of inventory, and a few orders at the moment are scheduled for supply as late as September.
In first-tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai, as quickly as a single unit of inventory turns into out there, it’s immediately offered out.” On August 7, a gross sales consultant from an official Apple channel informed shoppers that MacBook Air shortages started in Might, and provide constraints have turn into much more pronounced because the commencement and back-to-school seasons.
Throughout the current Q3 FY2026 earnings name, Cook dinner acknowledged that the corporate certainly confronted provide constraints by the quarter led to June, primarily affecting Mac and to a lesser extent iPhone and iPad. Looking forward to the September quarter, he famous that the affect of those provide constraints is anticipated to extend considerably quarter-over-quarter on account of diminished provide chain flexibility.
The provision disaster has prompted Apple to speed up its seek for new sources of DRAM (dynamic random-access reminiscence).
On the night of August 9, Zhongxin Jingwei reported that Apple is testing reminiscence chips from CXMT in its iPhone and MacBook product traces to alleviate reminiscence shortages triggered by the AI increase. On August 10, Shidai Caijing sought affirmation from CXMT (688825.SH); as of publication, no response had been obtained.
Spot provide is tight, deliveries are delayed, and even after the value improve, the MacBook Air stays laborious to get.
Shidai Finance visited a number of Apple retail and approved shops in Shenzhen and realized that, beginning in early July, provide of MacBook Air fashions outfitted with the M5 chip has turn into considerably tighter. Initially, deliveries of high-memory configurations had been delayed, and the scarcity shortly unfold to different variations.
Taking the 13-inch MacBook Air for instance, the 24GB unified reminiscence model is out of inventory in any respect three Apple retail shops in Shenzhen; the 16GB base mannequin can be out there in solely restricted portions at one retailer.
“The high-memory variations of the MacBook Air are principally out of inventory; if you happen to place an order now, you’ll want to attend no less than 4 weeks for supply,” mentioned a gross sales consultant at an Apple approved retailer, noting that buying stock has turn into considerably harder, with solely a small variety of base fashions remaining, principally from earlier inventory. “The upper the reminiscence configuration, the longer the wait time for supply.”
Instances Finance checked Apple’s China web site and located that, as of August 7, there have been important supply delays for the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air fashions with M5 chips. The delivery time for the 16GB unified reminiscence model has been prolonged to 2–3 weeks, whereas the wait time for the 24GB and 32GB variations has reached 4–6 weeks.
On-line supply is delayed, and bodily spot stock is equally scarce.
On social media, nervousness over the MacBook Air scarcity continues to develop. Many customers have shared their experiences of visiting a number of Apple Shops of their cities with out having the ability to buy their desired mannequin; checking the Apple web site every day has turn into a routine for a lot of potential patrons.
Primarily based on present supply standing, each the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air fashions are experiencing various levels of delays. A number of prospects who’ve positioned orders report that wait instances are typically longer for increased unified reminiscence configurations, akin to 24GB and 32GB.
For a very long time, the MacBook Air, with its comparatively low worth and slim, light-weight design, has been Apple’s most engaging product throughout its back-to-school marketing campaign. Not like the Mac Studio and Mac Professional, which goal skilled customers, the MacBook Air is tasked with increasing the Mac consumer base and attracting college students and normal shoppers, and can be referred to by Apple as “the world’s hottest laptop computer.”
The continued inventory shortages have additionally disrupted, to some extent, Apple’s back-to-school advertising and marketing schedule.
Apple’s back-to-school promotion within the U.S. market usually begins in June annually, however this yr it was delayed till July 16; the launch within the Chinese language market was additionally a few week later than standard. In some markets, the bottom mannequin 14-inch MacBook Professional is featured extra prominently on the marketing campaign web page, with a particular be aware indicating that availability is topic to inventory.
Extra notably, this scarcity occurred after Apple had already raised its product costs.
When Apple launched the M5 MacBook Air in March this yr, it elevated the bottom storage capability from 256GB to 512GB and raised the beginning worth from $999 to $1,099. In comparison with immediately growing the value of the identical configuration, this “improve and worth improve” strategy considerably softened shoppers’ notion of the value hike, but additionally elevated flash reminiscence consumption per gadget.
In June, Apple as soon as once more adjusted costs for a number of merchandise, together with the MacBook and iPad, with will increase starting from roughly 18% to 25%. In accordance with a worth improve discover obtained by Instances Finance from a licensed Apple retailer in Shenzhen, the beginning costs of the MacBook Professional, MacBook Air, and MacBook Neo had been raised by RMB 3,000, RMB 1,500, and RMB 900, respectively; the beginning costs of the iPad Professional and iPad Air had been additionally elevated by RMB 1,800 and RMB 1,200, respectively. In consequence, the MacBook Air has additional deviated from its long-standing place as an entry-level gadget.
Apple warns that the September quarter will face stress, with provide constraints anticipated to have a considerably higher affect.
Behind the scarcity of MacBook Airs, a worldwide scarcity of reminiscence chips is putting unprecedented price stress on Apple.
“We’re at present dealing with some very severe (provide) constraints, with restricted flexibility within the provide chain to deal with this situation,” mentioned Apple CEO Tim Cook dinner through the fiscal yr 2026 third-quarter earnings name.
He additional defined that demand has not weakened; quite the opposite, end-user orders far exceed the availability chain’s capability, with each advanced-node in-house chip manufacturing and DRAM reminiscence provide dealing with extreme constraints.
The surge in reminiscence chip costs is placing unprecedented stress on Apple. Cook dinner described the present reminiscence worth surroundings as a “hundred-year flood,” noting that costs have risen exponentially, forcing Apple to “reluctantly increase costs.” Even earlier than Apple introduced worth will increase in June, Cook dinner had already made these remarks, stating he had “by no means seen something like this in any business in over 40 years.”
Wanting past September, Cook dinner admitted, “We see reminiscence costs persevering with to rise, which can more and more affect our enterprise.”
The present world scarcity of reminiscence chips will be traced again to 2023. Following the rise of generative AI, tech corporations akin to Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Meta accelerated the development of AI knowledge facilities, driving a surge in demand for NVIDIA GPUs and high-bandwidth reminiscence (HBM), resulting in an preliminary scarcity of HBM.
The provision-demand imbalance continued to accentuate. Within the second half of 2025, the large-scale ramp-up of NVIDIA’s Blackwell platform additional elevated demand for HBM. In the meantime, AI servers additionally required high-capacity DDR5 and enterprise-grade SSDs, and cloud suppliers’ concentrated deployment of AI clusters triggered the scarcity to unfold throughout all the storage market.
HBM is basically composed of stacked DRAM chips and competes with DDR5 for DRAM wafer capability. Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron, looking for increased income, have prioritized increasing manufacturing of HBM and high-capacity server reminiscence, additional decreasing the availability of different DRAM merchandise.
Nonetheless, changes on the availability facet can’t be achieved in a single day. Constructing new wafer fabs entails not solely developing amenities and cleanrooms but additionally putting in tools, validating processes, and ramping up yields. Micron expects provide constraints to progressively ease by 2028, however it’s nonetheless unclear when provide will meet up with constantly rising demand.
Pushed by surging demand from AI hyperscale cloud suppliers, a Morgan Stanley examine in June 2026 discovered that costs for reminiscence chips akin to DRAM and NAND have risen to roughly six instances their ranges from a yr in the past. In accordance with Citi Analysis, the typical promoting costs of DRAM and NAND elevated by 44% and 53%, respectively, quarter-over-quarter within the second quarter of 2026.
TrendForce additionally expects that within the third quarter of 2026, conventional DRAM and NAND Flash contract costs will nonetheless rise quarter-over-quarter by 13% to 18% and 10% to fifteen%, respectively.
Though Apple has important buying scale and powerful bargaining energy, its benefit on this spherical of reminiscence competitors is weakening. Prior to now, Apple might safe elements first by advance funds, long-term procurement agreements, and a multi-supplier system; now, cloud computing giants additionally possess substantial money movement and are prepared to pay increased costs for AI infrastructure.
On this context, Apple clearly expressed its willingness to diversify its DRAM provide sources.
At present, the worldwide DRAM market is primarily dominated by three suppliers: Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron Expertise. Cook dinner acknowledged on the earnings name that growing the variety of suppliers might assist enhance provide, although it stays unclear whether or not this is able to alleviate pricing stress. “Apple is evaluating all provide choices.”
Within the quick time period, the availability scarcity has not considerably impacted Apple’s efficiency. Apple reported a 16.4% year-over-year income improve to $109.42 billion for its third fiscal quarter ended June 27, surpassing the market’s earlier expectation of a 15.5% development. iPhone gross sales rose 21.7% year-over-year to $54.25 billion, setting a brand new document for Apple’s third fiscal quarter; Mac gross sales additionally elevated 28.7% to $10.35 billion.
Nonetheless, if the stockout persists, the unfavourable affect will progressively turn into obvious.
Apple’s Chief Monetary Officer, Luca Maestri, acknowledged that the affect of provide constraints on the September quarter is anticipated to considerably develop in comparison with the June quarter and can have an effect on the iPhone, Mac, and iPad. Primarily based on this, Apple expects whole income development for the September quarter to be between 9% and 11%, with the higher finish of the vary beneath the Wall Avenue consensus estimate of 12%.
This text is from the WeChat official account “Time Finance APP” (ID: tf-app), creator: Pang Yu.
