Apple on Wednesday announced new MacBook Air models that update the company’s bestselling laptop with a faster M4 chip and an upgraded videoconferencing camera.
The computers also got a $100 price cut in the U.S., despite tariffs by President Donald Trump that took effect on Tuesday that experts have said could cause the price of electronics to rise.
The 13-inch MacBook Air starts at $999, and the larger, 15-inch model starts at $1,099. Users can pay more for memory and storage upgrades.
Although it has the same design as last year’s MacBook Air, the new computer will also be available in a fresh sky blue color, and it now supports multiple external monitors. The new MacBook Air goes on sale March 12.
The MacBook Air is one of Apple’s most critical products. Mac sales rose 15% in the December quarter to just under $9 billion in sales. The company attributed that increase to higher sales of laptops even though overall Mac sales, which also include desktop models, are still down from the company’s fiscal 2022. That was a period when computer sales were elevated as a result of people needing laptops for work or school during the pandemic.
Apple’s MacBook Air announcement caps off a flurry of new product releases by the company over the past few weeks.
In addition to the new laptops, Apple on Wednesday announced a high-end Mac Studio desktop with a chip that can run advanced AI. The company also upgraded its iPad Air with an M4 chip on Tuesday, and last month, it announced the low-cost iPhone 16e.
The Mac Studio has more processing power and is designed for people who work on computer graphics, audio or video production or artificial intelligence. It’s not cheap — the computer starts at $1,999, and more powerful configurations can cost nearly $9,000.
Apple’s new Mac Studio costs $1999 or more.
Apple
Prices watched closely
The MacBook Air price cut comes as Apple’s U.S. pricing is being closely watched by both Apple customers and investors to see what the iPhone maker does in response to the Trump administration’s tariffs.
Apple’s announcement signals that the company isn’t jacking up prices yet.
The new iPad Airs announced this week didn’t see any price change and still start at $599. However, the iPhone 16e costs $599, and it replaced the older low-cost model from 2022 that started at $429.
Analysts at Bank of America Securities last month forecast that PC makers including Apple would likely try to pass increased costs onto buyers. Rival Acer already announced price increases on laptops last month due to U.S. tariffs.
“Tariffs on imported PCs act like a tax that PC vendors largely pass to end customers,” the BofA analysts wrote.
The majority of Apple’s products are made in China and could be affected by two sets of 10% tariffs Trump placed on Chinese imports. Apple’s operations and third-largest market could be affected by Chinese retaliation.
Apple CEO Tim Cook met with Trump at the White House last month. After the meeting, Trump said that Apple “doesn’t want to be in the tariffs.” Cook told investors in January that Apple is “monitoring the situation.”
Apple has expanded its supply chain in recent years. Some Macs are now assembled in Malaysia or Vietnam, production locations which would avoid Chinese import duties. Apple didn’t say where the new MacBook Airs are assembled.
Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., during a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s president, not pictured, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, May 21, 2025.
Jim Lo Scalzo | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Tesla shares have dropped 7% from Friday’s closing price of $323.63to the $300.71 close on Tuesday ahead of the company’s second-quarter deliveries report.
Wall Street analysts are expecting Tesla to report deliveries of around 387,000 — a 13% decline compared to deliveries of nearly 444,000 a year ago, according to a consensus compiled by FactSet. Prediction market Kalshi told CNBC on Tuesday that its traders forecast deliveries of around 364,000.
Shares in the electric vehicle maker had been rising after Tesla started a limited robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, in late June and CEO Elon Musk boasted of its first “driverless delivery” of a car to a customer there.
The stock price took a turn after Musk on Saturday reignited a feud with President Donald Trump over the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the massive spending bill that the commander-in-chief endorsed. The bill is now heading for a final vote in the House.
That legislation would benefit higher-income households in the U.S. while slashing spending on programs such as Medicaid and food assistance.
Musk did not object to cuts to those specific programs. However, Musk on X said the bill would worsen the U.S. deficit and raise the debt ceiling. The bill includes tax cuts that would add around $3 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office.
The Tesla CEO has also criticized aspects of the bill that would cut hundreds of billions of dollars in support for renewable energy development in the U.S. and phase out tax credits for electric vehicles.
Such changes could hurt Tesla as they are expected to lower EV sales by roughly 100,000 vehicles per year by 2035, according to think tank Energy Innovation.
The bill is also expected to reduce renewable energy development by more than 350 cumulative gigawatts in that same time period, according to Energy Innovation. That could pressure Tesla’s Energy division, which sells solar and battery energy storage systems to utilities and other clean energy project developers.
Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that Musk was, “upset that he’s losing his EV mandate,” but that the tech CEO could “lose a lot more than that.” Trump was alluding to the subsidies, incentives and contracts that Musk’s many businesses have relied on.
SpaceX has received over $22 billion from work with the federal government since 2008, according to FedScout, which does federal spending and government contract research. That includes contracts from NASA, the U.S. Air Force and Space Force, among others.
Tesla has reported $11.8 billion in sales of “automotive regulatory credits,” or environmental credits, since 2015, according to an evaluation of the EV maker’s financial filings by Geoff Orazem, CEO of FedScout.
These incentives are largely derived from federal and state regulations in the U.S. that require automakers to sell some number of low-emission vehicles or buy credits from companies like Tesla, which often have an excess.
Regulatory credit sales go straight to Tesla’s bottom line. Credit revenue amounted to approximately 60% of Tesla’s net income in the second quarter of 2024.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos leaves Aman Venice hotel, on the second day of the wedding festivities of Bezos and journalist Lauren Sanchez, in Venice, Italy, June 27, 2025.
Yara Nardi | Reuters
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos unloaded more than 3.3 million shares of his company in a sale valued at roughly $736.7 million, according to a financial filing on Tuesday.
The stock sale is part of a previously arranged trading plan adopted by Bezos in March. Under that arrangement, Bezos plans to sell up to 25 million shares of Amazon over a period ending May 29, 2026.
Bezos, who stepped down as Amazon’s CEO in 2021 but remains chairman, has been selling stock in the company at a regular clip in recent years, though he’s still the largest individual shareholder. He adopted a similar trading plan in February 2024 to sell up to 50 million shares of Amazon stock through late January of this year.
Bezos previously said he’d sell about $1 billion in Amazon stock each year to fund his space exploration company, Blue Origin. He’s also donated shares to Day 1 Academies, his nonprofit that’s building a chain of Montessori-inspired preschools across several states.
The most recent stock sale comes after Bezos and Lauren Sanchez tied the knot last week in a lavish wedding in Venice. The star-studded celebration, which took place over three days and sparked protests from some local residents, was estimated to cost around $50 million.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai addresses the crowd during Google’s annual I/O developers conference in Mountain View, California on May 20, 2025.
Camille Cohen | AFP | Getty Images
The Google Doodle is Alphabet’s most valuable piece of real estate, and on Tuesday, the company used that space to promote “AI Mode,” its latest AI search product.
Google’s Chrome browser landing pages and Google’s home page featured an animated image that, when clicked, leads users to AI Mode, the company’s latest search product. The doodle image also includes a share button.
The promotion of AI Mode on the Google Doodle comes as the tech company makes efforts to expose more users to its latest AI features amid pressure from artificial intelligence startups. That includes OpenAI which makes ChatGPT, Anthropic which makes Claude and Perplexity AI, which bills itself as an “AI-powered answer engine.”
Google’s “Doodle” Tuesday directed users to its search chatbot-like experience “AI Mode”
AI Mode is Google’s chatbot-like experience for complex user questions. The company began displaying AI Mode alongside its search results page in March.
“Search whatever’s on your mind and get AI-powered responses,” the product description reads when clicked from the home page.
AI Mode is powered by Google’s flagship AI model Gemini, and the tool has rolled out to more U.S. users since its launch. Users can ask AI Mode questions using text, voice or images. Google says AI Mode makes it easier to find answers to complex questions that might have previously required multiple searches.
In May, Google tested the AI Mode feature directly beneath the Google search bar, replacing the “I’m Feeling Lucky” widget — a place where Google rarely makes changes.