Amazon raises prices on its hardware as industry-wide memory shortages drive costs higher

Amazon has increased the prices of its smart home and Kindle devices by up to 60%, citing rising memory and storage costs amid a broader industry trend driven by AI demand and supply shortages.

Amazon has sharply lifted the prices of much of its own hardware, with some products now costing as much as 60% more than before. The changes cover Echo smart speakers, Fire TV devices, Kindle e-readers and Eero routers, according to reports from Frandroid and TechCrunch, with the Echo Dot among the most notable examples after rising from $49.99 to $79.99.

Other models have followed a similar pattern. The Kindle Paperwhite has moved from $159.99 to $199.99, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max from $59.99 to $84.99, and the Echo Show 21 from $400 to $500. For now, the Ring security range appears to be untouched, although Amazon has not explained why it has been spared.

Amazon says the reason is straightforward: memory and storage components have become substantially more expensive. The company said the consumer electronics sector has been hit by a significant rise in the cost of those parts and that it had absorbed the pressure for as long as possible before passing some of it on to customers. It also said it plans to keep offering occasional promotions over the coming year.

The move fits a wider industry pattern that is being driven by demand from artificial intelligence systems. Reports from Tom’s Hardware indicate that hyperscale data centres are consuming a growing share of memory output, pushing up the price of DRAM, NAND and high-bandwidth memory. Nvidia has reportedly warned major customers of higher prices for some AI server systems next year, while AWS has already raised prices on certain cloud computing reservations. For consumers, the consequence is a broad rise in costs across products that depend on the same constrained supply chain, from servers to smart home devices.