Tim Cook's final earnings call and Apple’s memory bill: $AAPL gave us one of the clearest reads on the memory cycle this week. Revenue grew 16% and iPhone sales rose 22%. But the stock fell 7.4% after the outlook came in below expectations and management warned that supply constraints will become much more severe next quarter. Tim Cook said Apple paid significantly more for memory in June and expects to pay even more through September. He also pointed out that DRAM supply sits with three major producers. Apple has spent decades building enormous buying power across its supply chain. And in June, it still raised prices on several Macs and iPads because memory costs had reached a level the company could no longer keep absorbing. This is one of the second-order effects of the AI buildout that I think investors are still underestimating for demand outlook confirmation. HBM (high bandwith memory) receives the strongest pricing and pulls more investment toward data centres. Phones and computers are then left competing for a tighter pool of conventional memory at a much higher cost. Micron fell 5.9% on Friday after rising 18.4% the day before. It had traded higher during Apple’s call. I came away from Apple’s earnings call more constructive on the memory thesis. One of the largest buyers in consumer electronics is openly asking for more suppliers while telling investors its memory bill will rise again next quarter. That is the part of the report I care about most for Micron $MU