Micron's chief business officer suggested Apple's aggressive price negotiations contributed to the current memory shortage. During a past industry slump, Micron experienced negative margins due to intense pricing pressure from some customers. This led to a halt in industry investments in 2023 as pricing and margins were unsustainable. Micron is a key supplier of memory chips for Apple's devices, including iPhones and Macs. Apple is known for securing favorable terms through long-term contracts. These comments surfaced after Apple announced widespread hardware price increases across its product lines. Apple's stock saw a significant drop on the day of the price hikes, losing substantial market value. Earlier, Apple CEO Tim Cook had indicated price increases were inevitable due to rising memory and storage costs. Cook described the memory shortage as an unprecedented event, significantly impacting supply. He highlighted the increased demand for AI server memory as a major factor, forcing consumer products to compete for limited resources and driving up prices.