New Delhi, June 27 -- Within a span of five hours Thursday, Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. hiked the prices for such popular products as Xbox video-game consoles, Macs and iPads.

Both companies blamed an unprecedented shortage of memory chips driven by the artificial intelligence boom. And despite high-profile efforts to increase supply, the crunch and its impact on consumer prices won't end anytime soon.

On Monday, Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc. are expected to announce new chip manufacturing investments worth hundreds of billions of dollars, according to South Korean media reports. The Samsung Group, of which Samsung Electronics is a part, is set to unveil a 1,000 trillion won ($651 billion) spending package over the next d...