Apple today unveiled new Mac Mini and Mac Studio computers equipped with updated chips designed to handle artificial intelligence workloads locally, as the company seeks to strengthen its position in a market increasingly dominated by AI computing.
The new Mac Mini can be configured with Apple’s M6 or M5 Pro chips and starts at $899, up $100 from the previous model. It is the first Apple computer to use an M6-generation chip, which is manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (2330.TW) using a 2-nanometer process.
Apple’s move comes as developers and researchers increasingly use desktop computers to run and fine-tune AI models without relying entirely on cloud computing. Mac Mini systems have also gained attention among developers running AI agents locally, while Apple’s higher-end Mac Studio is used for AI research and local model deployment.
“With these frameworks and new chips, developers can run and fine-tune large AI models locally on their Mac,” Apple said in a press release.
Apple said the M5 Pro configuration can process large language model prompts 8.5 times faster than earlier Pro versions of the Mac Mini.
The previous Mac Mini was offered with M4, M4 Pro and M4 Max chips. Apple had raised the computer’s price earlier this year from $599, citing higher memory costs.
The Mac Studio, Apple’s most powerful computer without a built-in display, will be available with M5 Max and M5 Ultra chips. The company said models using the M5 Max can run large language models nearly four times faster than their predecessors.
Mac Studio models with the M5 Max start at $2,499, unchanged from the previous generation, while those with the M5 Ultra start at $5,499. The previous Ultra model started at $5,299 and used Apple’s M3 Ultra chip.
Apple said multiple Mac Studio computers equipped with the M5 Ultra can be linked to pool memory and operate as a single system, allowing users to run AI models with up to trillion-parameter scale.
The new computers are available for pre-order from Tuesday and will begin shipping on Sept. 22.
The launch comes as Apple prepares to unveil its next generation of iPhones and continues to develop its broader AI strategy.
Unlike companies such as Nvidia (NVDA.O), which dominates the market for high-end AI accelerators used in data centers, Apple has focused on integrating AI processing capabilities directly into its consumer devices.
Its chips include Neural Engine components designed for machine-learning workloads and a unified memory architecture intended to allow processors to access memory more efficiently.
That architecture has helped make Apple’s desktop systems attractive to developers looking to run AI models locally, particularly as models become smaller and more capable of operating on consumer hardware.
The shift toward local AI computing could also help developers reduce dependence on cloud-based services, where model inference and training can incur recurring computing costs and require users to send data to remote servers.
Apple has increasingly positioned its custom silicon as a differentiator as competition intensifies among chipmakers and technology companies seeking to capitalize on the growth of generative AI.
The company discontinued its Mac Pro earlier this year, leaving the Mac Studio as its highest-performance desktop computer.
The new Mac models extend Apple’s strategy of using its silicon across its product lineup while highlighting the ability of its processors to handle increasingly demanding AI workloads.
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