Today’s hottest gadget is a time machine that will take you to an Apple Store before the company raised prices on its laptops and tablets yesterday.

Conceding that it’s “not welcome news,” Apple announced it has to charge shoppers more as the cost of memory and storage chips skyrockets amid Silicon Valley’s AI data center boom. In a statement, an Apple spokesperson said that the company has “never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly.”

Apple’s stock dipped more than 6% yesterday as investors learned that you’ll now hate yourself even more when you spill coffee on your MacBook:

• Apple’s budget laptop, the MacBook Neo, is now $699, up from $599 (for 256 GB).
• A MacBook Air (512 GB) is now $1,299, up from $1,099.
• An iPad Air (128 GB) is now $749, up from $599.

While iPhones are spared for now, analysts expect Apple to charge as much as $200 more for iPhone 18 models coming out this fall.

When ‘AI’ stands for ‘accelerating inflation’

Some factories that make components for consumer devices are now busy producing the computer chips that power AI data centers, giving them greater pricing power. For instance, Micron, a major supplier of Apple’s memory chips, celebrated blockbuster quarterly earnings this week.

The cost of memory chips has spiked “more than fourfold” since Q4 of last year, one expert told TechCrunch. The MacBook maker isn’t alone in passing these costs onto consumers: Computers and other electronics prices rose around 6% from December to May, per government data.

The other Cook is watching. Fed Gov. Lisa Cook recently noted that AI companies plan to keep spending on data centers, meaning prices for electronics and other products could continue to spike. This could strengthen the case for the central bank to keep interest rates elevated—or raise them higher.

Meanwhile…Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is hopeful that the AI boom will boost productivity, leading to tamer prices—though many economists caution that this could take years.—SK

The race to succeed Jamie Dimon at JPMorgan took a turn. It may not be as juicy as Tom stealing the Waystar CEO gig from Kendall, but JPMorgan Chase’s succession drama ramped up yesterday, when the banking giant promoted Doug Petno and Troy Rohrbaugh to co-presidents, seemingly pitting them against each other to succeed 70-year-old Jamie Dimon as head of the US’ biggest bank. Simultaneously, Marianne Lake, a longtime deputy to Dimon who had been seen as the favorite to replace him, announced she was retiring. Dimon, whose 20-year reign atop JPMorgan included guiding the company through the 2008 financial crisis, plans to stay in the role for three more years, the Wall Street Journal reported.—AE

Death toll from Venezuela earthquakes could surpass 10,000, according to USGS. The United States Geological Survey used predictive models to make its estimate, which is based in part on the fact that people in the affected areas mostly live in “vulnerable building types,” it said on its website. The official death toll rose to 235 late on Thursday, and the number of people injured had reached 4,300, according to Venezuela’s health minister. Countries around the world continued to pledge aid to the afflicted nation. A US military command arrived in Caracas late yesterday to assist, and Pope Leo sent “an initial €100,000 emergency donation” to Venezuela, according to Vatican News.—HVL

Anthropic accused Alibaba of Claude malfeasance. In a letter sent to US officials, Claude maker Anthropic alleged that the Chinese tech company “brazenly” and “illicitly” accessed the AI model in an attempt to extract its capabilities. Anthropic called it “the largest known distillation attack” to date (distillation refers to training a less-advanced model on a smarter one). Like most US AI companies with consumer chatbots, Anthropic restricts access to Claude in China for national security and regulatory reasons. The news comes as Anthropic tries to patch up its rocky relationship with the federal government.—AE

The Supreme Court weeded Bayer’s garden yesterday with a 7–2 ruling that the company can’t be sued in state courts over claims that it failed to warn customers that its herbicide Roundup causes cancer.

This is a major victory for Bayer, which has been mired in litigation since it bought Roundup maker Monsanto in 2018. The decision overturns a Missouri jury’s $1.25 million award to a gardener who claimed he got cancer from repeated Roundup exposure and shields Bayer from tens of thousands of similar lawsuits. It also likely clears the way for a proposed $7.25 billion class-action settlement that would largely put Bayer’s Roundup crisis to bed.

Here’s why the court did what it did:

• Though the World Health Organization considers Roundup’s key ingredient, glyphosate, “probably carcinogenic,” the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) deems this “unlikely” and doesn’t require cancer warnings on Roundup.
• Because federal law bars states from imposing pesticide label requirements that differ from the EPA’s, Bayer is protected against state-level failure-to-warn claims, the court’s majority opinion, written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, said. Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Neil Gorsuch dissented.

Trouble in MAHA-dise: The decision is a win for the pesticide industry—and for the Trump administration, which urged the court to side with Bayer. But RFK Jr.’s followers are staunchly opposed to glyphosate and aren’t happy with the Trump-supported decision.—ML

Somewhere on the vehicle spectrum between a Rivian and a Lime scooter, the Amble One was born. A Portugal-based startup founded by Apple and Audi alumni introduced the new electric buggy yesterday, marking the biggest innovation in the golf cart industry since someone figured out how to bungee-cord a full cooler into the backseat.

The $25,000 luxury, low-speed buggy maxes out at about 40 mph and weighs less than 1,000 pounds, which makes it street-legal in Europe and Asia. The vehicle was created when Amble co-founder José António Uva was complaining to co-founder and veteran Apple designer Julian Hoenig about the outdated, imperfect fleet of club cars he had to buy for one of his resorts:

• The team then spent about three years building the souped-up cruiser in private, getting inspiration from NASA’s moon rover.
• Amble is already working on a second model for urban drivers to use in place of a second car, for grocery trips and dropping their fancy little kids off at school.

The bougie golf cart market is bigger than you think. Amble will start hospitality deliveries in mid-2027, saying its production capacity for next year is already sold out. It’s also taking preorders from consumers (i.e., gated communities), with deliveries starting in 2028.—MM

On Fridays, the Brew’s Dave Lozo looks at a sports business story that says a lot more than just the final score of a game.

The NCAA announced a new rule that all but ends the phenomenon of athletes staying in college for so long that you’d think they were professors, not middle linebackers. Starting in the 2027–28 academic year, the sport’s governing body is limiting eligibility to five years and only allowing extra years in special circumstances, like pregnancy or military service. A student-athlete’s clock starts when they start school or the academic year after they turn 19—whichever comes first.

But hold on: A lawsuit contesting the rule has already been filed, and more are expected. Athletes who enrolled in 2022 who aren’t eligible for a fifth year say it’s unfair because they had to compete against much older players during their careers.

It’s also a money issue: The complaint argues that the rule unfairly impacts the ability of 2022 enrollees to earn name, image, and likeness (NIL) money. In some cases, college athletes can make seven figures from NIL deals.

Up next: A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday to rule on a request for a preliminary injunction.—DL