AI Hardware Demand Is Now Raising US Inflation as Much as Tariffs — And African Buyers Pay in Dollars

AI demand for memory and computing hardware has pushed up US core inflation by roughly as much as the tariffs imposed early last year, according to Minneapolis Federal Reserve researchers — a finding with direct consequences for African organisations that buy the same equipment in dollars. Prices for video and information processing equipment rose 12.2% year-on-year through July, adding about 0.4 percentage points to core personal consumption expenditures inflation.