Apple's recent Q2 2026 earnings report highlighted a remarkable $8.4 billion revenue for Mac products, marking a 6% increase from last year. However, the company is grappling with significant supply shortages for the Mac mini and Mac Studio, primarily driven by a surge in demand attributed to artificial intelligence applications. CEO Tim Cook revealed that these shortages might last for “several months,” with high-RAM configurations being particularly affected.
The popularity of the Mac mini has notably risen due to the emergence of OpenClaw, an open-source AI platform that enhances the demand for Apple's unified memory architecture. This shift has transformed the Mac mini from a standard desktop option into a preferred choice for developers, who are increasingly utilizing it for local AI model execution. Currently, the base model of the Mac mini is sold out in the U.S., and models with 64GB of RAM are facing delays of up to 18 weeks.
Additionally, Mac Studio models featuring 512GB of unified memory have been removed from the online store, leading to inflated prices on resale platforms like eBay. This unexpected spike in demand has caught Apple off guard, as the supply chain struggles to keep pace with the rising need for memory-intensive products.