The era of generative AI has disrupted technology supply chains, and there is one hard and fast rule in 2026: if it has memory or storage, it gets more and more expensive. Even devices with years-old technology are apparently still subject to this unwritten rule. Nvidia just announced that the Shield TV Pro costs $100 more, 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 media type. Although it ran an aging Tegra X1+ processor, it 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 price of $299.99.
Nvidia has confirmed that you can blame AI for Shield TV’s higher price. “Starting October 2, SHIELD Pro will cost $299. The cost of components, including memory, has increased significantly across the industry,” a spokesperson told Ars.
When we spoke to Nvidia’s Andrew Bell earlier this year, he touted the Shield as a passion project, but it seems passion projects still have to pay the bills at Nvidia. In this interview, Bell explained that the Shield is still actively manufactured and that the company sells every unit it makes. With no stock of pre-AI hardware to sell, the new Shield TV units are subject to the same supply chain constraints as today’s smartphones and computers.
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