Apple's AI Pitch Lifts Stock Price Amid Hardware Challenges

Apple's stock price rose nearly 2% on September 30 to $335.87, as the company positioned its upgraded Mac Minis and Mac Studios as alternatives to renting AI computing power.

The pitch is to buy the computing power upfront and run AI locally, rather than paying per-token rental charges. Apple demonstrated four connected Mac Studios running a trillion-parameter model from a single wall outlet.

However, breaking into enterprise computing is a bigger job than showing off hardware: Apple holds roughly 4.6% of the enterprise desktop market, compared with 91.3% for Windows.

Owning the hardware avoids per-token rental charges, but maintenance and depreciation still count. The payoff depends on keeping those machines busy.