Brian_r

#applechipshortagehurtssalesforecast There’s something rather curious in Apple’s results this week. The company has just reported a very strong quarter: revenue of US$109.420 billion, up 16.4% year over year; iPhone sales grew 21.7% to US$54.250 billion, and Macs nearly 29%, to US$10.350 billion. So why did the market get nervous? Because Apple is looking ahead to the next quarter and, essentially, is saying: “ We could sell more… if we had enough chips.” Apple expects revenue to grow between 9% and 11%, below the ~12% Wall Street was expecting. Tim Cook noted that demand is outstripping the available capacity for certain advanced components. And this is where the story gets interesting. The shortage of chips and memory isn’t happening because suddenly everyone wants to buy more iPhones. There’s a much bigger force behind it: artificial intelligence is soaking up manufacturing capacity. Manufacturers are devoting more and more resources to high-performance components for data centers and AI infrastructure, while consumer-device makers compete for a more limited supply. Samsung, for example, warns that the chip shortage could last until 2028. And Apple is starting to feel it. In fact, the company has already had to raise prices on some Macs and iPads due to higher memory costs, while it tries to keep the iPhone competitive. That’s why, when I see this trend, I don’t just look at $AAPL I’m also interested in what’s happening with memory and semiconductor manufacturers. Because in a shortage, someone loses the ability to produce, but someone else is selling that component at ever-higher prices.