Apple stock sinks as global memory crisis hurts profits, giving Ternus his first big test
- ID
- 42478
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 04 Nov 2026, 6:35 AM
- Fetched
- 04 Nov 2026, 6:48 AM
- Provider
- CNBC Technology
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://www.cnbc.com/2026/11/03/apple-earnings-john-ternus-faces-first-test-amid-high-memory-costs.html
- Source URL
- https://www.cnbc.com/id/19854910/device/rss/rss.html
Summary
- Score
- 5.5
- Created
- 04 Nov 2026, 6:48 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- developersvibe_codersai_ml_learnerssaas_founders
What happened
In John Ternus' first earnings call as Apple CEO, Apple guided December-quarter gross margin to 45–46%, below the 46.3% LSEG analyst average, even though earnings, revenue and iPhone results beat expectations and current-quarter sales guidance topped estimates. CFO Kevan Parekh attributed the margin shortfall primarily to higher memory costs plus some costs from the Siri AI ramp, and Ternus said memory purchase pricing is expected to keep increasing beyond the December quarter. The stock fell after hours.
Why it matters
Apple is now publicly guiding that memory purchases get more expensive into 2027, not just this quarter — that is the same DRAM/NAND supply that goes into the laptops, phones, servers and cloud capacity builders buy. If you have a hardware refresh or a GPU/RAM-heavy deployment budgeted for the next 6–12 months, treat current quotes as a floor rather than a ceiling and decide now whether to lock in pricing or defer; also note that Apple is booking Siri AI infrastructure costs directly against gross margin, which is the same cost line AI features will show up on for any product team.
Discussion angle
Memory cost inflation is now visible in a mega-cap's gross margin guidance — what is your cutoff for buying RAM/GPU capacity now versus waiting, and how would a 5–10% hardware cost increase change your next build or self-host decision?