Google’s next Pixel phone is shaping up to be more expensive, giving smartphone buyers a direct look at how the AI hardware boom is spilling into consumer devices.
Shakil Barkat, Google’s vice president of devices and services, said the company had “shielded our consumers from supply fluctuations for as long as possible,” but added that the “economics have fundamentally shifted and we’re not immune to that.”
The comments point to a price increase for the Pixel 11, Google’s next flagship phone. Reports suggest the base model could cost $899, though it is also expected to start with 256GB of storage instead of 128GB.
The pressure comes from the memory market, where demand from AI data centers has pushed up the cost of RAM used across phones, computers, gaming hardware and streaming devices. The same squeeze has already led companies including Apple, Microsoft, Nintendo and Roku to raise prices on some products.
Google has not announced final Pixel 11 pricing. Barkat said the Pixel line would see pricing “adjustments” that would be rolled out dynamically to match supply conditions.
There may also be a hardware tradeoff. Reports suggest the Pixel 11 Pro could move from 16GB of RAM to 12GB, a change that would land awkwardly for a device expected to carry more AI features.
Google is scheduled to announce its next generation of Pixel devices on August 12. Until then, the company has made one thing clear: the cost of the AI race is no longer confined to cloud servers.
