Apple flags record memory chip costs as European tech stocks slide on margin warning

Apple told investors on Monday that higher memory prices will eat into its profit margins. Its shares fell in after-hours trading on Wall Street. By Tuesday morning the effect had crossed the Atlantic. European shares slid as the Apple margin warning triggered a global tech selloff, according to Investing.com's market report on 3 November.

"What we're seeing with memory pricing right now is unprecedented," chief executive John Ternus said on the earnings call, according to The Guardian, which reported the remarks on 2 November. He predicted memory costs in the fourth quarter would be even higher than in the previous three months.

Ternus said Apple's decision to raise iPad and MacBook prices in June, followed by iPhone prices in September, had "provided some offset" for the company. That is a price rise passed to consumers, not a cost absorbed.

The numbers behind the warning

Apple earned $30.71bn, or $2.10 a share, in the July to September period, up 12% from $27.47bn, or $1.85 a share, a year earlier, The Guardian reported. Earnings included five cents a share from tariff refunds. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected $1.99 a share on revenue of $113.4bn. Apple's shares were down 2.75% in after-hours trading. The backdrop is what the industry has taken to calling "RAMageddon": months of surging memory demand from AI datacentres, with Apple now competing with those buyers for supply, according to The Guardian.

Ben Barringer, head of technology research at Quilter Cheviot, called the results "OK, if on the disappointing side". He noted revenue was up 12% on iPhone sales and strong Mac Mini sales. China growth was strong, he said, but iPad and wearables disappointed. Services grew at 10%, below the group average, he said.

Jacob Bourne, an Emarketer analyst, argued Apple's "tepid approach" to AI infrastructure spending had helped preserve its cashflow, in remarks carried by The Guardian. That framing matters for Europe. The same AI datacentre buildout pushing memory prices up is also the story moving European bond and equity markets this week. DW.com reported on 3 November that AI giants are offering billions in bonds and competing with European governments for investor capital.

Elsewhere, prices move for other reasons

Not every price signal in the past 72 hours comes from a chip shortage. Electrek reported on 2 November that from 18 February 2027, new e-bike batteries sold in the EU must carry a digital battery passport under the EU's 2023 Batteries Regulation. A QR code will give access to manufacturer, chemistry, capacity, cycle count, carbon footprint and materials data. Exactly what a buyer can see will depend on their authorisation level, Electrek noted. So the passport is not a guarantee of a visible health percentage at the point of resale.

"There are so many vulnerabilities out there that … you could say are waiting to be exploited," Richard Horne, NCSC chief executive, said at the launch of the agency's annual review on Tuesday.

On the same day, the cost of connected equipment got a more direct airing. The Guardian reported on 3 November that UK meat suppliers were hit by cyberattacks after hackers raised freezer temperatures at supermarkets across Europe. The National Cyber Security Centre said it was working with the affected companies and that national impact was minimal. The British Association of Independent Meat Suppliers told the BBC some of its more than 300 members were affected. One company's cold units heated to up to 100C; the units were empty and no produce was lost.

CNBC reported on 3 November that Ahold Delhaize had dozens of Delhaize stores affected in Belgium and Luxembourg. Colruyt Group said five Spar stores in Belgium were targeted, and Carrefour told the BBC 15 Belgian stores were attacked. Intermarché said 15 of its 153 Belgian stores were impacted. "In most cases, the security measures in place made it possible to quickly contain the attack," an Intermarché spokesperson told CNBC, adding that a few stores suffered stock losses, "nothing comparable to the attack in mid-October".

Tom's Hardware reported on 2 November that hackers remotely activated freezers' built-in defrost mode, the same method as the earlier French attack, with temperatures reaching 50 degrees Celsius. That earlier French incident involved legacy technology connected to the internet with default passwords, The Guardian reported. Xavier Bellekens, chief executive of the cyberdefence firm Lupovis, told The Guardian his firm recorded 256 attempted attacks from 91 different sources between 20 October and 30 October. The attacks hit honeypot traps mimicking Danfoss fridge controllers, with most authentication attempts using the manufacturer's publicly documented factory-default credentials.

Capital keeps moving

Away from the chip and freezer stories, European funding news continued at pace. Tech.eu reported on 3 November that Portuguese startup Granter raised €1.6M, led by 3XP Global through its Impact Innovation Fund under Portugal's state development bank, bringing total funding to €2M. Tech.eu also reported on 2 November that Roleo raised €2.9M led by Practica Capital with Inventure participating. Veriff co-founder Janer Gorohhov and former Wise engineer Vahur Hansen founded Roleo. Tech.eu's weekly recap on 2 November counted over €1.3B invested across more than 60 European deals.

Infrastructure ambitions got a European framing too. HPCwire reported on 3 November that Bull and Schwarz Digits, the IT and digital division of Schwarz Group, signed a memorandum of understanding to build sovereign AI and cloud infrastructure. Bull will contribute rack scale AI production from its Angers factory and Schwarz Digits will contribute its STACKIT cloud. Emmanuel Le Roux, CEO of Bull, said the aim was to give European organisations capabilities "they can deploy and control".

In clean transport policy, CleanTechnica published a Transport & Environment policy brief on 2 November. It argued the EU ETS review proposal from July 2026 is not fit to support clean fuel investment in aviation and shipping. It called for 50% of national ETS revenues to be earmarked for decarbonisation in priority sectors. CleanTechnica also reported on 31 October that the Hyundai IONIQ 3 was named a finalist for European Car of the Year 2027.