Apple sells its new Mac mini and Mac Studio to companies as local AI with no token fees

Apple started shipping new Mac mini and Mac Studio desktop computers on Tuesday, and is selling them to corporate customers as a cheaper alternative to data center rental.

The pitch is local AI, meaning businesses no longer have to pay per-token fees to cloud providers such as OpenAI and Anthropic.

A four-computer stack runs a trillion-parameter model off one outlet

Apple is aiming the Macs at large AI workloads, such as writing code and running intricate business tasks. The top configurations are about $20,000.

“There’s no cost per token. You’re just using the machine again and again,” Johny Srouji, Apple’s chief hardware officer, said.

Apple has demoed four Mac Studios connected together to run a trillion-parameter AI model to find and fix a graphics coding bug. Usually, a job like that needs a data center.

The pile of Macs runs off one wall outlet.

The link runs over Thunderbolt 5 with remote direct memory access. Apple claims that it enables distributed AI inference up to three times faster than a single machine.

The M5 Ultra Mac Studio can go up to 512GB of unified memory, but that configuration won’t ship until late October. Apple says the Mac mini with M6 starts at $899, and the Mac Studio with M5 Ultra at $5,499.

In August, Cryptopolitan reported the entry Mac mini price increased by $100, which Apple attributed to memory costs.

The chips share common designs, so AI models built on Apple’s machines scale from the priciest Mac Studios down to iPhones and iPads, Srouji said.

Windows holds 91.3% of enterprise desktops and laptops

Apple is way behind. It has about a 4.6% share of the corporate desktop and laptop market, compared to 91.3% for Windows.

Microsoft is aiming at the same buyers with on-device AI. Microsoft plans to merge many of its AI features into a single super app for Windows, CEO Satya Nadella has said.

Nvidia and PC makers are rolling out new AI desktops, expected to be the big headline of a Microsoft Windows event in San Francisco next month.

Microsoft said it has worked with chip partners to simplify AI work through its Windows ML tools, and that RDMA and other features are an area of active investment.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang downplayed any suggestion the company would go head-to-head with Apple at the launch of its new PC chip this summer.

Apple’s opening traces back to 2020, when it moved to Apple Silicon, which combined computing and memory in a single design for battery savings.

The design made Macs good at AI, and Mac minis sold out as open-source agent tool OpenClaw spread in markets like China.

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