If you’re trying to buy a Mac Mini in the US right now, you’re likely out of luck. The compact desktop has vanished from store shelves, driven by a sudden surge in AI demand that has also caused second-hand MacBook prices to skyrocket in China. Over the last few months months, Mac Mini has become a “must-have” tool for AI power users who are using the device to run “always-on” AI agents, like OpenClaw, directly from their homes rather than relying on cloud services, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.
Why AI users are buying Mac Mini
One of the reasons why people are buying Mac Mini is the local power. Running AI locally means no monthly subscription fees or usage quotas. Moreover, users can keep their data on their own desk rather than sending it to a corporate server.The second-biggest reason is massive memory. To run high-level AI, you need lots of RAM (memory). The Mac Mini offers high-performance RAM at a much lower price than a top-tier MacBook.
Mac Mini ‘Currently Unavailable’
On Apple’s official website, high-memory models, specifically the M4 model with 32GB of RAM and the M4 Pro with 64GB, are listed as “currently unavailable,” the report said and independently checked by The Times of India tech team. For other models, customers are facing shipping delays of one to three months. Even the ultra-powerful Mac Studio is seeing wait times of up to 12 weeks, with Apple recently removing its top-tier 512GB RAM configuration from the store entirely, the report added.The shortage isn’t just a US problem. Last month, in China, the same desperation for AI-capable hardware has sent the second-hand MacBook market into a frenzy.Since new, high-spec machines are hard to find or too expensive, buyers are snapping up older MacBooks with high RAM capacities to use as “servers” for their AI agents. According to a CNBC report, Jeremy Ji, chief strategy officer and general manager of international business at ATRenew, a used-electronics reseller that partners with Apple and JD.com in mainland China, from March to May, ATRenew is maintaining Apple product prices at levels typically seen during peak iPhone launch periods, instead of the usual seasonal decline, with new MacBooks generally priced about 15% higher than used units on its platform.Analysts say Apple was simply caught off guard by the speed of the AI revolution. “Apple was caught up by the number of people buying Minis for AI, which would have been impossible to predict a few months ago,” said Francisco Jeronimo, vice president at research firm IDC.
