Apple has begun shipping new high-end Mac computers designed to handle demanding artificial-intelligence tasks locally. 

The upgraded Mac Mini and Mac Studio are being positioned as alternatives to relying entirely on cloud-based AI services, putting Apple into more direct competition with Microsoft and Nvidia in enterprise computing. 

Some of the new machines can cost nearly $20,000 and are aimed at corporate customers and AI developers. 

Apple is promoting the computers as a way for businesses to perform AI work without continuously paying cloud providers based on the amount of computing they use.

Apple is relying heavily on its custom-designed chips and unified-memory architecture. 

The company has demonstrated several Mac Studios working together to run an AI model with one trillion parameters, showing how multiple machines can be connected for demanding workloads. 

The move also represents an attempt to expand Apple’s presence in corporate computing.

Apple currently has only about 4.6% of the enterprise desktop market, compared with more than 90% for Windows, according to IDC data cited by Reuters.

Nvidia remains dominant in AI data-center infrastructure, while Microsoft is developing its own on-device AI strategy for Windows. 

Apple’s new Macs therefore represent another front in the growing competition over where AI computing should take place, in large data centers or directly on users’ devices. 

Source: Reuters.