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TRUE, BUT

Apple blamed "the rapid expansion of AI data centers" for the price hikes on your next Mac or iPad. Apple's own decision to cram more RAM into its devices for its own AI features is a second AI-driven cost its statement never mentions.

Apple (written statement, June 2026); Tim Cook, then-CEO. Recorded 7 September 2026. Our ruling means: literally true, materially misleading.

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The evidence file for this verdict

8 receipts: 5 support the claim, 0 contradict it, 3 add context. 3 figures on the record, 2 traced to a quoted receipt.

Call resolution, recorded 13 Sept 2026

Inconclusive. Apple announced iPhone 18 Pro at $1,199 and Pro Max at $1,299 on September 9, 2026, a real, confirmed $100 increase over the iPhone 17 Pro/Pro Max starting prices, per MacRumors (macrumors.com/2026/09/09/iphone-18-pro-pricing/) and 9to5Mac (9to5mac.com/2026/09/09/new-iphone-18-pro-price-rises-perhaps-not-as-bad-as-some-feared/), both independently confirming the $100 figure. That is a real increase, not the flat/barely-changed outcome that would have flipped this to unsupported, but it lands at exactly half analyst Nabila Popal's roughly $200 projection, not 'near $200 or higher' as the confirming threshold required. The shortage-driven pricing pressure is real and continued into the iPhone line; it did not hit the severity Apple's own 'unavoidable, unsustainable' framing implied.

  1. 1macrumors.com ↗Every source link and quote stays open on the story page.
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