Apple's inventory jumps 154.3% as memory costs surge

Apple’s inventory, driven largely by computer memory, kept climbing in its fiscal fourth quarter, the company said in Monday’s earnings report. Inventory rose from $11.09 billion in the third quarter to $14.54 billion in the fourth — a 31.1% jump — and was up 154.3% from the $5.72 billion Apple held in the same quarter of 2025.

Apple expects gross margin to fall to 45% to 46% in the December quarter, down from the 47.9% it posted in September, largely because of memory costs. “What we’re seeing with memory pricing right now is unprecedented,” CEO John Ternus told analysts on the earnings call, adding that the company partly offset the increase by drawing on existing inventory and on savings in non-memory components.

Apple already nudged prices up this year on select devices — Mac and iPad in late June, iPhone in September — partly to offset the higher costs, and Ternus said memory prices are expected to keep rising beyond the December quarter, even as the benefit from existing inventory fades over time.

Why it matters

Apple’s warning signals that the memory-chip crunch driven by AI-industry demand is now hitting even the best-capitalized hardware makers, a cost pressure likely to show up in device prices well beyond the current quarter.