4 ms·

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

41 points by prabal97 1mo ago

ChrisArchitect 1mo ago
Related: Apple Caught Off Guard by AI Demand for Mac Mini and Mac Studio https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49508982 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49508982
bigyabai 1mo ago
[dead]
vbwml 1mo ago
AI-junkie: Claude, please write an AI infra article about OpenAI buying Macs! Please use a non-beige background for once! AI-royalty: I'm sorry, non-beige requires the full token price!
evanjrowley 1mo ago
I hope this means OpenAI might become a contributor to Asahi Linux, lest their hardware investment become depreciated due to planned obsolecense by Apple.
- vablings 1mo ago
  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
- nozzlegear 1mo ago
  A vibe coded distro is a real monkey's paw type of wish: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49499854 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49499854
pingou 1mo ago
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?
- notfromhere 1mo ago
  Aren't they used doing this so they can generate training data for using Macs via the UI with computer use?
- unrented7977 1mo ago
  The tinfoil hat answer is they want to ensure fewer people can run local LLMs instead of paying OpenAI for their models.
  - mindslight 1mo ago
    But the monthly subscription isn't that expensive? (demon rises up. "muahahaha, you don't pay here with money")
- prabal97 1mo ago
  I think they just want Apple devices to train their computer-use models in a realistic environment.
  - MisterTea 1mo ago
    What realistic environment requires 10,000 Macs?
    - prabal97 1mo ago
      I mean an agent probably only uses one mac at a time. But they're obviously training tons of agents concurrently.
    - nom 1mo ago
      10000 realistic encironments
burnt-resistor 1mo ago
Good luck with that. Managing zillions of Macs has always been difficult, clients and servers. Stanford tried to build an Xserve cluster and failed miserably at it because the OS wasn't conducive to it, nor the hardware at the time either. :( It's not impossible but requires a lot of messy custom, fragile tooling.. and that's expensive to support.
- DangitBobby 1mo ago
  Sounds like a job for a state of the art model...
  - cyanydeez 1mo ago
    Chicken, meet egg.
jbverschoor 1mo ago
Just to make sure we’re gonna do opening and run locally?
- jbverschoor 1mo ago
  That went wrong.. I meant -> Just to make sure we won't be able to buy and run LLMs locally
ChrisLTD 1mo ago
Something else they want to price us out of?
- exceptione 1mo ago
  Yep. Waiting for someone writing a paper titled "All you need is coffee" or something.
ksudb 1mo ago
[dead]
kevinrineer 1mo ago
> According to The Information, OpenAI has reportedly purchased tens of thousands of Mac minis and Mac Studios in recent months for reinforcement learning and training computer-use agents. I do hope they verified this claim and didn't just read the headline. I'm not interested in subscribing to that source to find out unfortunately.
exabrial 1mo ago
The one good thing out of this, we may finally get the mac pro back. Hopefully a rackmount version that doesn't cost trillions.
- anakaine 1mo ago
  Perhaps only billions per 2u with the current trajectory of ram pricing. /s

41 points by prabal97 1mo ago

Related: Apple Caught Off Guard by AI Demand for Mac Mini and Mac Studio https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49508982 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49508982

bigyabai 1mo ago

[dead]

vbwml 1mo ago

AI-junkie: Claude, please write an AI infra article about OpenAI buying Macs! Please use a non-beige background for once! AI-royalty: I'm sorry, non-beige requires the full token price!

evanjrowley 1mo ago

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

vablings 1mo ago
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
nozzlegear 1mo ago
A vibe coded distro is a real monkey's paw type of wish: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49499854 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49499854

pingou 1mo ago

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?

notfromhere 1mo ago
Aren't they used doing this so they can generate training data for using Macs via the UI with computer use?
unrented7977 1mo ago
The tinfoil hat answer is they want to ensure fewer people can run local LLMs instead of paying OpenAI for their models.
- mindslight 1mo ago
  But the monthly subscription isn't that expensive? (demon rises up. "muahahaha, you don't pay here with money")
prabal97 1mo ago
I think they just want Apple devices to train their computer-use models in a realistic environment.
- MisterTea 1mo ago
  What realistic environment requires 10,000 Macs?
  - prabal97 1mo ago
    I mean an agent probably only uses one mac at a time. But they're obviously training tons of agents concurrently.
  - nom 1mo ago
    10000 realistic encironments

burnt-resistor 1mo ago

Good luck with that. Managing zillions of Macs has always been difficult, clients and servers. Stanford tried to build an Xserve cluster and failed miserably at it because the OS wasn't conducive to it, nor the hardware at the time either. :( It's not impossible but requires a lot of messy custom, fragile tooling.. and that's expensive to support.

DangitBobby 1mo ago
Sounds like a job for a state of the art model...
- cyanydeez 1mo ago
  Chicken, meet egg.

jbverschoor 1mo ago

Just to make sure we’re gonna do opening and run locally?

jbverschoor 1mo ago
That went wrong.. I meant -> Just to make sure we won't be able to buy and run LLMs locally

ChrisLTD 1mo ago

Something else they want to price us out of?

exceptione 1mo ago
Yep. Waiting for someone writing a paper titled "All you need is coffee" or something.

ksudb 1mo ago

[dead]

kevinrineer 1mo ago

> According to The Information, OpenAI has reportedly purchased tens of thousands of Mac minis and Mac Studios in recent months for reinforcement learning and training computer-use agents. I do hope they verified this claim and didn't just read the headline. I'm not interested in subscribing to that source to find out unfortunately.

exabrial 1mo ago

The one good thing out of this, we may finally get the mac pro back. Hopefully a rackmount version that doesn't cost trillions.

anakaine 1mo ago
Perhaps only billions per 2u with the current trajectory of ram pricing. /s