MENLO PARK, Aug. 25 -- When Meta lifted its 2026 capital spending guidance to as much as $145 billion, it told investors why. Part of the increase was additional data centre cost to support future-year capacity. The other part was higher prices for components.

That second phrase is worth sitting with, because Meta is the third large American technology company in under a month to put the same cost in writing. Apple's Tim Cook called memory pricing a hundred-year flood on his final earnings call. Nvidia's customers were told server prices are rising more than 15 per cent, with memory given as the reason. Meta put it in the capex line.

On Monday the market sold the companies charging that price. Micron fell 5.23 per cent and SanDisk 6.06 ...