Apple was surprised by AI-driven demand for Macs

Apple's Mac revenue surpassed Wall Street's low $8 billion expectation, reaching $8.4 billion in the second quarter, with sales up 6% year-over-year. While recent product launches like the MacBook Neo contributed, CEO Tim Cook highlighted that a significant driver of this growth was the unexpected customer demand for running local AI models on Macs. This surge in demand, particularly for Mac mini and Mac Studio devices, led to them selling out and caught Apple by surprise, as customer recognition of Macs as platforms for AI and agentic tools is happening faster than predicted. Enterprise adoption, with companies like Perplexity choosing Macs for AI assistants, and even school systems like Kansas City Public Schools switching from Chromebooks to the MacBook Neo, also played a role. Apple is currently experiencing supply constraints on some models and anticipates it may take several months to balance supply and demand.

(Source：TechCrunch)