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I think it's unlikely that Apple is paying the spot price for memory. They almost certainly negotiate delivery/price contracts in advance. Maybe the contract for the chips used in the 512GB model will expire soon?
Yes but the clock has been ticking, new products are being released, and at some point they will be renegotiating the next contract
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/02/26/apple-agrees-100-price-...
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iMessage… and safari. Browsing the web from a headless vps has hurdles.
> safari. Browsing the web from a headless vps has hurdles Hooking things up to puppeteer maybe? You can use pupeteer to then use the chromium control remote (debug?) option iirc which uses websockets underneath the hood Then you can connect this from your pc or theoretically any Control server. Surprised to not hear much work on that front now that you mention it.
I’ve been in tech for a long time and have seen RAM shortages and price spikes before. This one’s fairly bad but they resolve in 1-3 years.
Ya, how's that working out for GPU's?
One is that it’s a more complicated part with tougher fab requirements.
Two is that it’s not a commodity. AMD can’t make nVidia GPUs. They have to design their own. Everyone has patents and trade secrets and copyrights. Patents expire and knowledge diffuses but that adds another time lag.
AMD and Intel are fully aware of the demand and are working on it.
RAM is a commodity. Totally interchangeable standard part. Also simpler to fab, thus quicker and easier to scale up.
Oh, and I’d like to add: everyone is afraid it’s a bubble that will pop. Nobody wants a bunch of stranded capex. That has also happened before many times. So that puts brakes on it too.
I think it's unlikely that Apple is paying the spot price for memory. They almost certainly negotiate delivery/price contracts in advance. Maybe the contract for the chips used in the 512GB model will expire soon?
>Apple buys and uses so much RAM across all its product lines that it’s in a better negotiating position than the likes of Framework or Raspberry Pi, but CEO Tim Cook acknowledged in the company’s last earnings call that memory pricing could begin to eat into Apple’s profit margins later this year.
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Incredible digging. I remember reading comments about the reason the price hike was the Sam Altman secured a deal with the few ram producer in secrecy were they promised to reserve a large portion of their production to OpenAI for the next years (I don't remember how long). Supposedly Sam will just to put them in a warehouse to collect dust.
> Incredible digging Thanks. I appreciate your kind words, I was thinking of writing some piece/blog about it but procastination is definitely something :) But I am just happy that I finally wrote a comment atleast explaining all/most of my understanding. That's more than fine for me. > Incredible digging. I remember reading comments about the reason the price hike was the Sam Altman secured a deal with the few ram p…
it'd be interesting to just hear some thoughts and opinions from someone who has done some research on the topic in a light way vs a huge article/documentary
They may be trying to sell through the existing CPU before a launch (soft or not) of the M5-based versions (though I've heard the rumor is there will be no M5 Ultra and we might be looking at an M6 Ultra later in the year).
Interestingly, the "ultra" Mac Studio released a year ago was based on the older M3, not M4. Apparently, the work to "ultra-fy" a CPU is significant (which makes sense) so there can be a lag. Not that they have to follow pattern, but the a Mac Studio ultra released later this year might be based on M4. Or one based on M5 might be released a year or more from now.
They may be trying to sell through the existing CPU before a launch (soft or not) of the M5-based versions (though I've heard the rumor is there will be no M5 Ultra and we might be looking at an M6 Ultra later in the year).
Interestingly, the "ultra" Mac Studio released a year ago was based on the older M3, not M4. Apparently, the work to "ultra-fy" a CPU is significant (which makes sense) so there can be a lag. Not that they have to follow pattern, but the a Mac Studio ultra released later this year might be based on M4. Or one based on M5 might be released a year or more from now.
Reports and leaks strongly indicate Apple is preparing an M5 Ultra (likely fusing or scaling from the M5 Max using this advanced interconnect tech) for a Mac Studio refresh later in 2026, based on Bloomberg/Mark Gurman and other sources. This would bring back the top-tier "Ultra" option after skipping it entirely for M4.
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it's Apple and they don't like to adjust prices to the market other companies would have just hiked the price of the 512GB model to reflect the lack of supply and to allow people who really need that model to pay for it dearly but that comes with some PR damage that Apple would rather not deal with
But they did raise the price of the 256GB model.
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My understanding is “ultra-ify” means put two together. I think it’s about having inventory https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/03/apple-unveils-m1-ultr...
It used to mean that, but the new M5 Pro and M5 Max have separate CPU and GPU chiplets with an interposer, similar to how the previous generation Ultras were based on connecting two Max full dies. So it's unclear whether there will be any Ultra for the M5.
I’ve been in tech for a long time and have seen RAM shortages and price spikes before. This one’s fairly bad but they resolve in 1-3 years.