Shares of Apple slid 3.9% to ARS 26,860 on November 3, erasing roughly a week of gains, after the company's holiday-quarter outlook signaled that booming sales may not translate into equally strong profits. Apple posted September-quarter revenue of $114.5 billion, up 12% year over year , and net profit of $30.7 billion, or $2.10 per share . Yet the market zeroed in on what comes next: a gross margin forecast of 45% to 46% for the December quarter, trailing the 46.3% average analyst estimate .

  • Memory Chips, Not Weak Demand, Are the Culprit. CFO Kevan Parekh told analysts that more than 100% of the margin pressure traces back to the rising cost of DRAM and NAND chips . CEO John Ternus called memory pricing "unprecedented" and said the company expects "even higher memory costs" in the December quarter . Component costs for the flagship iPhone jumped roughly 40% year over year, with memory's share of build cost climbing from around 10% in mid-2025 toward 40% by early 2027 . Apple's manufacturing purchase obligations surged 58% in a single quarter to $90 billion as it scrambles to lock in supply.

  • Siri AI Adds Costs Before It Adds Revenue. Apple cited Siri AI ramp expenses alongside memory as a drag on December margins . The rebuilt assistant runs on a 1.2-trillion-parameter model hosted on Google Cloud servers using Nvidia chips — meaning every user query carries a real server cost. Heavy users will eventually need paid iCloud+ plans , but that revenue stream is still nascent. Until uptake of paid tiers scales, Siri AI is a cost center eating into gross profit.

  • Even Record Revenue May Not Save Operating Profit. At the 45.5% guidance midpoint, Apple needs roughly $157 billion in December-quarter revenue — about 9.2% growth — simply to match last year's operating profit . The company is also absorbing about $1.4 billion in tariff costs on top of the memory squeeze while projecting 10%–12% revenue growth . Revenue can grow and profits can still shrink — a dynamic that justifies the selloff.

  • The Supply Shortage Could Limit Holiday Sales. Apple expects supply constraints on Mac and iPad in the December quarter, driven by memory, because demand has been higher than expected . That's a double hit: margins compress and some sales may go unfilled. Ternus warned that memory costs are "continuing to increase" beyond December , suggesting this is not a one-quarter headwind.

The bottom line: Apple is selling more than ever, but a global memory shortage and the upfront bill for its AI ambitions are squeezing the profit each sale generates. Until memory prices stabilize or Siri AI starts paying for itself, investors face a rare stretch where Apple's top line and bottom line move in opposite directions.