The demand for local AI could shape a new business model for Apple

To put it simply: Apple Silicon is impressively optimized for running local AI models. And the data is clear: people care about this. Mac Studios are widely sold out, and Mac minis are impossible to find. There’s a variety of reasons for this – like OpenClaw and other computer-use agents. But there’s also a group of people buying up high-end Macs with swaths of unified memory, which are incredible for running local LLMs.

While I’m sure Apple appreciates the additional hardware sales, I think they could push this even further – by entering a segment they’ve thus far ignored.

Apple could become a server provider

Apple flirted with the idea of selling servers for a while, in the form of Xserve. There was also a variant of the 2019 Mac Pro that could fit in a server rack. That’s now gone – with no direct replacement.

I think now more than ever, there’s a good reason to want to have macOS as a server – and it has to do with AI. People want to have agents that can tap into their Apple services and Mac apps without using their own computers. That’s why so many people are buying Mac mini’s to use as headless always-on devices.

I’m not sure how feasible it is, but if this trend continues, I think it might be plausible to see Apple enter the server business – similar to how providers like AWS operate. Customers could pay Apple a monthly fee for access to macOS and Apple Silicon in the cloud.

Apple already has some of the infrastructure for this, with Private Cloud Compute. Those servers are largely underutilized for now, until Apple gets its Gemini-tuned Apple Intelligence models ready to go.

Either way, Apple could potentially expand further. There’s no denying it’s lucrative – more than half of Amazon’s profits come from AWS, not shopping.

Wrap up

Apple is already a massive company, and iPhone sales show no signs of slowing down. In the world of AI though, if Apple wanted to grow a new chunk of its business, I think renting out compute on Apple Silicon servers running macOS could become a hot new hit. It’d certainly save some people from buying up all of the Mac Studios with high amounts of unified memory.

Sure, you can sell people on a $4000 computer once, or you could make $200+ per month on them for as long as they need the cloud compute.

With Apple CEO Tim Cook likely stepping down from his role sometime in the near future, I could easily see Apple pursuing this idea under new leadership. Especially since John Ternus has a hardware background.

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