The Wall Street Journal 's Rolfe Winkler this week reported that flash storage suppliers once "bullied" by Apple have been "getting their revenge" on the company over the past year due to a severe memory chip shortage, which stems from AI companies building out massive data centers that utilize significant amounts of flash storage and RAM. As the iPhone took off, Apple became the world's largest buyer of flash storage, and naturally that gave the company a lot of leverage in negotiations. The report goes into detail about some of the hardball tactics that were employed by Apple and its former head of procurement, Tony Blevins . "After ordering flash at rock-bottom prices, Apple would refuse delivery at times if flash prices were falling," the report said. "That left suppliers holding piles of unsold chips, including ones custom-made for Apple. " Based in Japan, Kioxia was previously known as the Toshiba Memory Corporation. " The report shared another example involving flash storage supplier Sandisk. Apple's other suppliers, such as SK Hynix and Samsung, were not mentioned. "Around the end of 2015, Sandisk refused Apple's requests to send additional supply because it already had customers willing to pay more," the report said. " Things changed when the AI era arrived. "Two years ago, Apple bought nearly twice the flash storage of Microsoft, Amazon, Meta and Google combined, according to TechInsights estimates," the report said, citing a research firm. " Much of the "revenge" has been passed on to customers, as Apple has raised prices on more than a dozen products this year, including iPhones, iPads, Macs, HomePods, the Apple TV, and more, with the company attributing these increases to the memory chip shortage.