Tim Cook issues chilling warning as ‘hundred-year-flood’ strikes US tech giants like Apple, Dell, HP.
Get protection now Moneywise and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue through links in the content below
Tim Cook has spent more than four decades inside the global electronics supply chain. From IBM to Compaq to Apple, he has lived through shortages, cost spikes, shipping chaos and economic shocks. Top Picks But according to the Apple CEO, this one is different. “This is a hundred-year flood,” Cook told The Wall Street Journal (1) in an exclusive interview. “I’ve never seen anything like it in any area in over 40 years.” The warning came as Apple prepares to raise prices on its products to offset surging costs for memory and storage chips used in iPhones, Macs, iPads and other devices. “Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable,” Cook said. “We’re doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we’ve been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable.” Cook declined to say exactly when the increases will hit, how large they will be or which Apple products will be affected.
But the company’s next major launch is expected in September, when Apple is likely to unveil the iPhone 18 lineup. Chips used for memory and storage power everything from phones and laptops to gaming systems, medical devices and cars. When their prices surge, the pain can ripple across large parts of the economy.