Chip shortage forces Raspberry Pi to hike prices for the first time ever

Big chipmakers like Qualcomm, AMD and Nvidia aren’t the only ones affected by the global shortage of chips. Earlier this week, the Raspberry Pi Foundation announced that it will be raising the prices of its popular low-power single board computer by the same name. Chief executive Eben Upton said that the price hike is temporary and is a result of the chip shortage that has been crippling electronics companies worldwide.

“We’re now expecting our supply chain challenges to continue through much of 2022. These challenges will fall most heavily on our older products, built on 40nm silicon: in practice, anything that isn’t a Raspberry Pi 4, Raspberry Pi 400, or Compute Module 4. With this in mind, we’re making several changes to help our customers, many of whom are buying Raspberry Pis to power their businesses, navigate the next twelve months,” Upton said in a blog post.

The price of the 2GB Raspberry Pi 4 is being upped by $10 and will cost users $45 (approx. Rs. 3300) now. The Foundation had been selling this board at $35 since February after it discontinued the 1GB variant of this board. This 1GB version is also being reintroduced now at the old $35 price tag.

Industrial users of Raspberry Pi 3B+ boards are being advised to switch their designs to the 1GB board for now. Upton said that the Foundation expects to have enough 28nm silicon over the next 12 months and that there are “early signs” that the supply chain situation is starting to ease. 

“None of these are palatable decisions. In the entire history of Raspberry Pi, we have never increased the price of a product, and have often been able to reduce prices between, and sometimes within, generations,” Upton said, stressing that the changes are only temporary.