The Memory Shortage Is Coming for Big Tech's Bottom Line. This Company Will Hold Up Better Than Anyone Else.

Memory prices continue to climb in 2026 as big tech's insatiable appetite for computing power grows faster than memory chipmakers can expand production. Samsung, the largest memory chipmaker in the world, says its pricing rose 90% in the first quarter. And big tech is happy to pay up for access to the chips that relieve one of the biggest bottlenecks in artificial intelligence (AI) training and inference.

Meta Platforms, Alphabet, and Microsoft all cited higher component pricing as a reason for increased capital expenditures in 2026 in their most recent earnings calls with analysts. That will ultimately translate into a significant drag on their bottom lines as higher memory chip pricing will result in higher depreciation expenses over the next few years.

And while memory pricing will affect just about any company that needs the chips for their products, one big tech company looks well positioned to hold up better than the competition.

Image source: Getty Images.

Don't forget this big tech stock

While Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon all need memory chips for their data centers, another big tech company needs them for nearly every product it sells. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) faces an impending challenge when it comes to managing high memory prices. But I believe it's more than up to the task.

Apple saw its overall gross margin expand to a record 49.3% last quarter. While high-margin service sales continue to push that level higher, Apple also saw an improvement in its hardware gross margin. The segment generated gross profit of $31 billion on sales of $80 billion last quarter, for a gross margin of 38.7%. That's up from 35.9% in the same quarter last year, but down from 40.7% in the first quarter.

CEO Tim Cook told analysts that gross margin will continue to decline next quarter because of the impact of memory pricing. He said component pricing had minimal impact on cost of sales in the first quarter, which ended in December, but that impact increased in the second quarter and will continue to increase over the next few quarters. Management's outlook calls for gross margin between 47.5% and 48.5%.

"We will look at a range of options," Cook said. And Apple, fortunately, has a lot of good options.

What options are on the table for Apple?

It could simply absorb the cost of higher component pricing. Memory chips are commodity-like, and as Samsung and other manufacturers increase capacity, their prices will eventually come down. As such, it's likely only a temporary impact on gross margin. And given Apple's already very high gross margin and its massive net cash position, it can easily manage higher component prices.

It could mitigate the upfront impact by entering long-term supplier contracts. That could ultimately benefit everyone, as it gives the memory chipmakers more confidence to build out capacity to meet demand. And with long-term guarantees from Apple, they could support a bigger build-out.

Apple could end up seeing total gross profits increase from absorbing higher memory costs. It's one of the few premium smartphone makers that hasn't raised pricing. Even Samsung raised phone prices earlier this year, despite sourcing memory chips and other components from its own foundry. That could help Apple grab a greater market share as consumers compare phones based on both features and pricing.

The other option is for Apple to raise pricing. It could do so across the board, but it may take a more exacting approach. Higher-end devices may get a price bump while base-level devices compete for market share. Strong demand for Mac computers could push Apple to raise prices on those, but the iPhone is still, by far, Apple's biggest moneymaker.

Either way, Apple is well positioned to handle the impact of memory pricing and ensure it has as small an impact on its bottom line as possible. While other big tech companies are stuck absorbing market pricing for components while competing on price for cloud computing capacity, Apple has more options.

With strong demand for its iPhones driving fantastic revenue growth so far this year, Apple could see extraordinary earnings gains either from improving its market share or maintaining its record-high gross margin. That makes its current valuation around 33 times forward earnings look like a fair price to pay for a wonderful business.

Adam Levy has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.