Apple (AAPL-US) Eyes Apple Intelligence Surge Amid Memory Chip Price Hikes

Apple shares rose 0.67% to $275.50 as Bernstein analyst Mark Newman raised the firm’s target from $325 to $340. While memory costs for the iPhone 18 could climb 15%—with DRAM up 237% and NAND 70%—Newman sees limited EPS impact and a potential 12% average price increase. He highlights Apple Intelligence/Siri 2.0, a hybrid model combining on-device and private cloud compute with Google’s Gemini, as the key catalyst. This maintains Apple’s privacy advantage and could drive a refresh cycle, offsetting memory-driven margin pressure and outperforming rivals.