A global storage chip supply crisis is plunging Apple's best-selling laptop into a situation where it is "hard to find one."
For Li Mu (pseudonym), who plans to buy a MacBook Air for the back-to-school season, this summer feels particularly long. Recently, he ordered a 13-inch MacBook Air with M5 chip and 24GB memory on Apple's official website, and the order showed an estimated delivery time of September 1 to September 8. When he called offline Apple authorized stores to inquire, multiple stores replied that "there is currently no stock, and the arrival time cannot be guaranteed."
Li Mu's experience is not an isolated case. Times Finance noticed that complaints about MacBook Air shortages are widespread across multiple social platforms. The delivery cycle on the official website has been extended, offline stores are hard-pressed to find stock, and some orders have delivery times scheduled as late as September.
"In first-tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai, now almost as soon as a unit is in stock, it's 'snapped up' immediately." On August 7, a salesperson from an Apple official channel replied to consumers, saying that since May this year, MacBook Air has experienced shortages, and after entering graduation season and back-to-school season, the supply tension has become more pronounced.
In the recent Q3 FY2026 earnings call, Cook acknowledged that the company did encounter supply constraints in the quarter ending June, mainly affecting Mac, and to a lesser extent iPhone and iPad. Looking ahead to the September quarter, he noted that due to reduced supply chain flexibility, the impact of supply constraints is expected to intensify significantly quarter-over-quarter.
The supply crisis has prompted Apple to accelerate the search for new sources of DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory).
Just on the evening of August 9, China News Service cited reports that Apple is testing memory chips from ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) in its product lines such as iPhone and MacBook, to alleviate the memory shortage triggered by the AI boom. On August 10, Times Finance sought confirmation from ChangXin Technology (688825.SH) on this matter, but had not received a response as of press time.
Tight stock, delayed delivery, MacBook Air still "hard to find" after price increase
Times Finance visited multiple Apple direct stores and authorized stores in Shenzhen and learned that since early July, the supply of MacBook Air equipped with the M5 chip has become noticeably tighter. Initially, delivery of high-memory models was delayed, and soon it spread to more versions.
Taking the 13-inch MacBook Air as an example, the 24GB unified memory version is out of stock at all three Apple direct stores in Shenzhen; the 16GB base version is only available in limited stock at one store.
"High-memory versions of MacBook Air are basically out of stock; now pre-ordering requires at least 4 weeks for delivery," said a salesperson at an Apple authorized store. The difficulty in obtaining stock has increased significantly, and the few base models available are mostly from previous inventory. "The higher the memory configuration, the longer the wait for arrival."
Times Finance checked Apple's China official website and found that as of August 7, both the 13-inch and 15-inch M5 chip MacBook Air models showed significant delivery delays. The shipping cycle for the 16GB unified memory version has been extended to 2-3 weeks, while the 24GB and 32GB versions have waiting times of 4-6 weeks.
Online delivery is delayed, and offline stock is equally scarce.
On social media, the anxiety over grabbing a MacBook Air continues to ferment. Many users have shared experiences of running around Apple Stores in their cities and still not being able to buy the model they want; refreshing Apple's official website daily has also become a routine for many potential buyers.
Based on current delivery status, both the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air models have experienced varying degrees of delay. Multiple consumers who have placed orders reported that waiting times for high unified memory configurations such as 24GB and 32GB are generally longer.
For a long time, the relatively low-priced and lightweight MacBook Air has been Apple's most attractive product during the back-to-school season. Unlike the Mac Studio and Mac Pro aimed at professional users, the MacBook Air is tasked with expanding the Mac user base and attracting students and general consumers, and Apple also calls it "the world's most popular laptop."
The persistent shortage has also disrupted Apple's back-to-school marketing rhythm to some extent.
Apple's back-to-school promotion in the U.S. market typically starts in June each year, but this year it was postponed to July 16; the start time in the Chinese market was also about a week later than in previous years. On the promotional pages in some markets, the base 14-inch MacBook Pro is placed in a more prominent position, with a special note that related products are "subject to availability."
What is more noteworthy is that this shortage occurs after Apple has already raised product prices.
When releasing the M5 MacBook Air in March this year, Apple increased the base storage capacity from 256GB to 512GB and raised the starting price from $999 to $1099. Compared to directly raising the price of the same configuration, "expanding capacity and raising price" has weakened consumers' perception of the price increase to some extent, but it also increases the consumption of flash memory per device.
In June, Apple raised prices again on multiple products including MacBook and iPad, with increases of about 18% to 25%. Times Finance obtained a price increase notice from an Apple authorized store in Shenzhen, which showed that the starting prices of MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and MacBook Neo were raised by 3,000 yuan, 1,500 yuan, and 900 yuan respectively; the starting prices of iPad Pro and iPad Air were also raised by 1,800 yuan and 1,200 yuan respectively. As a result, the MacBook Air has further deviated from its long-held entry-level positioning.
Apple warns of pressure in September quarter, supply constraint impact to expand significantly
Behind the tight supply of MacBook Air, the global memory chip shortage is bringing unprecedented cost pressure to Apple.
"We are currently facing some very serious (supply) constraints, and the supply chain has limited flexibility to solve this problem," said Apple CEO Tim Cook during the Q3 FY2026 earnings call.
He further explained that the demand side has not weakened; rather, terminal orders far exceed the supply chain's capacity, with both advanced process self-developed chip production capacity and DRAM memory supply being constrained.
The surge in memory chip prices is bringing unprecedented pressure to Apple. Cook described the current memory price environment as a "once-in-a-century flood" and said prices have risen exponentially, leading Apple to "reluctantly raise prices." Even before Apple announced price increases in June this year, Cook had already made such remarks and said he had "never seen anything like this in any field in over 40 years."
Looking ahead to September and beyond, Cook admitted: "We see that memory market prices will continue to rise, which may have an increasing impact on our business."
The root of this round of global storage chip supply tension can be traced back to 2023. After the rise of generative AI, tech companies such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Meta accelerated the construction of AI data centers, driving a surge in demand for Nvidia GPUs and High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), with HBM being the first to experience shortages.
Since then, the supply-demand contradiction has continued to ferment. In the second half of 2025, Nvidia's Blackwell platform ramped up in large volumes, further boosting HBM demand. At the same time, AI servers also require high-capacity DDR5, enterprise SSDs, and other products. Cloud service providers concentrated on building AI clusters, causing the shortage to gradually spread to the entire memory market.
HBM is essentially composed of multiple DRAM chips stacked together, competing with DDR5 for DRAM wafer capacity. Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron, in pursuit of higher profits, prioritize expanding HBM and high-capacity server memory production, further squeezing the supply of other DRAM products.
However, adjustments on the supply side cannot be achieved overnight. Building a new wafer fab involves not only the construction of factories and cleanrooms but also equipment installation, process validation, and yield ramp-up. Micron expects that supply tightness will gradually improve by 2028, but it is still impossible to determine when supply can catch up with continuously growing demand.
Driven by the surge in demand from AI hyperscale cloud providers, a Morgan Stanley study in June 2026 showed that prices of memory chips such as DRAM and NAND have risen to about six times their original levels over the past year. According to Citi Research estimates, average selling prices for DRAM and NAND in Q2 2026 rose 44% and 53% quarter-over-quarter, respectively.
TrendForce expects that contract prices for traditional DRAM and NAND Flash in Q3 2026 will still rise 13%-18% and 10%-15% quarter-over-quarter, respectively.
Although Apple has a large procurement scale and strong bargaining power, its advantage in this round of memory competition is weakening. In the past, Apple could secure components in advance through prepayments, long-term procurement agreements, and a multi-supplier system; now, cloud computing giants also have strong cash flows and are willing to pay higher prices for AI infrastructure.
Against this backdrop, Apple has clearly expressed its willingness to expand DRAM supply sources.
Currently, the global DRAM market is mainly dominated by three suppliers: Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron Technology. Cook said on the call that if suppliers increase, it would help improve supply, but whether it can alleviate price pressure is unclear. "Apple is evaluating all supply options."
In the short term, the supply shortage has not significantly affected Apple's performance. Apple reported revenue of $109.42 billion for the third fiscal quarter ended June 27, up 16.4% year-over-year, beating the market's expected growth of 15.5%. Among them, iPhone sales increased 21.7% year-over-year to $54.25 billion, setting a record for Apple's third fiscal quarter; Mac sales also increased 28.7% to $10.35 billion.
However, if the shortage continues, the negative impact will gradually emerge.
Apple CFO Kevin Parekh said that the impact of supply constraints on the September quarter is expected to be significantly larger than in the June quarter, and will affect iPhone, Mac, and iPad. Based on this, Apple expects total revenue growth in the September quarter to be between 9% and 11% year-over-year. The upper end of the range is lower than the Wall Street consensus of 12%.
This article is from the WeChat public account "Times Finance APP" (ID: tf-app), author: Pang Yu.
