Apple Is Suddenly an AI Infra Stock as OpenAI Buys 10k+ Macs

  AI-junkie: Claude, please write an AI infra article about OpenAI buying Macs!
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Re: Apple Is Suddenly an AI Infra Stock as OpenAI Buys 10k+ Macs

#5

Post by evanjrowley » Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 5:27 PM UTC

I hope this means OpenAI might become a contributor to Asahi Linux, lest their hardware investment become depreciated due to planned obsolecense by Apple.

Re: Apple Is Suddenly an AI Infra Stock as OpenAI Buys 10k+ Macs

#6

Post by pingou » Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 5:33 PM UTC

I don't understand the economics of that, is it just because compute is very constrained and they are buying everything they can, even suboptimal machines with a lower performance per $? Or is it just an experiment and anyway 10k macs are just a blip?

Re: Apple Is Suddenly an AI Infra Stock as OpenAI Buys 10k+ Macs

#7

Post by vablings » Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 5:39 PM UTC

evanjrowley wrote: post #5

I hope this means OpenAI might become a contributor to Asahi Linux, lest their hardware investment become depreciated due to planned obsolecense by Apple.

I highly doubt that a purchase this large did not come with contracts to get software working how OpenAI wants on the apple software hardware stack.

Apple wants this knowledge for their software stack too so it's not going out back into Asahi

Re: Apple Is Suddenly an AI Infra Stock as OpenAI Buys 10k+ Macs

#8

Post by notfromhere » Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 5:50 PM UTC

pingou wrote: post #6

I don't understand the economics of that, is it just because compute is very constrained and they are buying everything they can, even suboptimal machines with a lower performance per $? Or is it just an experiment and anyway 10k macs are just a blip?

Aren't they used doing this so they can generate training data for using Macs via the UI with computer use?

Re: Apple Is Suddenly an AI Infra Stock as OpenAI Buys 10k+ Macs

#9

Post by unrented7977 » Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 5:59 PM UTC

pingou wrote: post #6

I don't understand the economics of that, is it just because compute is very constrained and they are buying everything they can, even suboptimal machines with a lower performance per $? Or is it just an experiment and anyway 10k macs are just a blip?

The tinfoil hat answer is they want to ensure fewer people can run local LLMs instead of paying OpenAI for their models.

Re: Apple Is Suddenly an AI Infra Stock as OpenAI Buys 10k+ Macs

#10

Post by prabal97 » Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 6:16 PM UTC

pingou wrote: post #6

I don't understand the economics of that, is it just because compute is very constrained and they are buying everything they can, even suboptimal machines with a lower performance per $? Or is it just an experiment and anyway 10k macs are just a blip?

I think they just want Apple devices to train their computer-use models in a realistic environment.