Amazon raises Echo, Fire TV prices up to 60%

Amazon raised prices on its Echo and Fire TV devices by as much as 60%, blaming a memory shortage, per TechCrunch.

The increase falls hardest on Amazon's cheapest hardware, the $50 speakers and $60 streaming sticks aimed at price-sensitive shoppers. A $30 jump on a $50 device changes the math for the low end of the smart-home market.

The Echo Dot rose from $49.99 to $79.99, a 60% increase. The Echo Show 21 climbed to $500, up $100. The Fire TV Stick 4K Max climbed to $85, a $25 increase. Amazon said it absorbed rising component costs for as long as it could before passing them on.

The shortage traces to Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron, all redirecting wafer capacity from ordinary DRAM to high-bandwidth memory for AI accelerators. HBM takes three to four times the wafer area per usable bit that standard DRAM does. Every wafer an AI accelerator order claims removes several wafers' worth of Echo-grade DRAM from the market.