The era of generative AI has upended technology supply chains, and there is one ironclad rule in 2026: If it has memory or storage, it’s getting more expensive. Even devices with years-old tech inside are still apparently subject to that unwritten rule. Nvidia has just announced that the Shield TV Pro is getting $100 more expensive, effective immediately.
The most recent version of the Shield streaming box debuted in 2019, running Android TV with AI upscaling and hardware decoding for almost any type of media. While it ran an aging Tegra X1+ processor, that was (and still is) fast for a TV media streamer. The device launched at $199.99, with a non-Pro variant at $149.99. The non-Pro Shield has since been discontinued, but the Shield TV Pro lives on at the new $299.99 price.
Nvidia has confirmed that you can blame AI for the higher Shield TV pricing. “Starting October 2, SHIELD Pro will be priced at $299. The cost of components, including memory, has increased substantially across the industry,” a spokesperson told Ars.
When Ars Technica talked to Nvidia’s Andrew Bell earlier this year, he framed the Shield as a passion project, but it looks like passion projects still have to pay the bills at Nvidia. In that interview, Bell explained that Nvidia still actively manufactures the Shield and sells every unit it makes. Without a stockpile of pre-AI hardware to sell, new Shield TV units are subject to the same supply chain constraints as today’s smartphones and computers.
Nvidia isn’t a victim here, though. As a key player in AI hyper scaling, the company is more responsible than most for the sky-high cost of components. It has also become one of the most valuable firms in the world thanks to its market-leading AI accelerators and GPUs. As a consequence, we’re seeing new products launch at higher prices than their predecessors, and many end up getting more expensive during their lifetimes. Game consoles have been particularly affected, with Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony all bumping the prices of their current-gen hardware. The PS5 Pro, for example, has gone from $699.99 at launch in 2024 to $899.99 today.
Stock of the Shield TV Pro has been slim for the last few months, probably because it became too expensive to manufacture new units with component prices rising so quickly. At $300, it will make sense for Nvidia to churn out more devices. However, this higher price will cause an already niche set-top box to be even less appealing to people who just want to stream Netflix.
Unless you need the Shield’s extensive codec support or Plex server capability, it makes more sense to get a cheaper streamer. The Shield is still out of stock on Nvidia’s store, but it’s available at the new price from Best Buy.
This story originally appeared on Ars Technica.
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