Apple announces new Mac Mini and Mac Studio models with AI upgrades
Written by laserteam on August 25, 2026
(CNBC) – With more consumers turning to Apple’s
computers for creating and running AI agents, the company is rolling out new Mac Mini and Mac Studio models with updated chips and other upgrades for artificial intelligence applications.
The announcement, a few weeks before Apple is expected to release new iPhone models, shows how desktop computers have become strategically important for Apple as a foothold in the AI development world, and as a showcase for the capabilities of its processors.
Developers using software like OpenClaw to create their own agents often prefer to run them on a dedicated Mac Mini computer instead of in the cloud. And Apple’s Mac Studio is a popular choice for AI researchers who are experimenting with training and deploying local models.
Apple highlighted in Tuesday’s announcement that it builds its iPhone and Mac chips with special parts called neural engines dedicated to running models, and that it uses a RAM architecture that eliminates some memory bottlenecks.
“With these frameworks and new chips, developers can run and fine-tune large AI models locally on their Mac,” Apple said in the press release.
The Mac Mini can now be configured with two new chips, the M6 and M5 Pro. It’s the first Apple computer with an M6-generation chip, which is manufactured on a 2-nanometer process from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co
The prior version was available with M4, M4 Pro and M4 Max chips. Apple said the computer configured with the M5 Pro can process large language model prompts 8.5 times faster than older Pro versions of the Mac Mini.
Prices are also going up. The computer now starts at $899, up $100 from the prior model. That followed an increase over the summer from $599, which Apple blamed on memory costs.
