Bad news for tech buyers and Apple, as chip costs jump and US sanctions on China increasingly backfire on American and allied companies.

• Tech is getting more expensive because the AI data-center boom is eating up memory chips, pushing up prices for laptops, phones, and game consoles.
• Apple wants Washington's permission to buy cheaper memory chips from China's blacklisted CXMT to protect its profits, as its stock slides on planned price hikes.
• The Netherlands is fighting US pressure to block more chip-machine sales to China, because cutting off that market would gut its prized company ASML.
• China is squeezing Japan back — adding Japanese firms to export-control lists and choking off rare earth metals needed for chips, magnets, and EVs.
• High inflation has the Fed cornered, with markets now betting on rate hikes rather than cuts, while hopes for cheaper oil rest on the Iran conflict easing.

Outlook: Expect chip and gadget prices to keep climbing and US-China-Japan tensions to escalate unless Washington eases its export crackdown.