苹果 (AAPL.US) Mac 全线遭遇 “内存荒”：高配版下架，入门款门槛抬升

According to Zhitong Finance APP, Apple Inc. (AAPL.US) is experiencing the largest configuration reduction in its desktop Mac product line in recent years this week. From May 5 to 6, high-memory configurations were massively withdrawn. Several high-spec Mac devices have been removed from Apple's online store: the Mac mini versions equipped with 32GB and 64GB memory are no longer available for direct purchase, and the memory limit for the M4 Pro version has been compressed to 48GB. For Mac Studio, the 256GB memory option for the M3 Ultra version has been canceled, and currently, the maximum available configuration is only 96GB; the 128GB configuration for the M4 Max version has also been removed. The delivery time for some high-end models has been extended to 9 to 10 weeks.

On May 2, Apple had already raised the entry threshold for Mac. Apple quietly removed the M4 Mac mini base configuration equipped with 16GB memory + 256GB SSD storage globally. Taking the Chinese market as an example, this version originally priced at 4,499 yuan, after being removed, the lowest configuration available on the official website has been upgraded to 16GB + 512GB, with a starting price rising to 5,999 yuan, an increase of 1,500 yuan. The U.S. market adjusted simultaneously, with the starting price rising from $599 to $799.

In fact, Apple began gradually reducing the memory options for Mac Studio as early as March this year—first removing the 512GB version, and in April further stopping orders for the 256GB and 128GB versions. This round of tightening in May marks that the memory shortage crisis has fully spread from the high-end market to the mid-range product line.

Supply Chain Break: "Amputation for Survival" Under Dual Shortage Pressure

To trace the deep mechanisms behind this round of major adjustments in the Mac product line, two parallel supply chain break lines must be considered.

The first line: Advanced process SoC bottleneck. Cook clearly acknowledged in the Q2 fiscal year 2026 earnings call that the main constraint is the limited supply of advanced process nodes used to produce SoCs, while "supply chain flexibility is lower than usual." In other words, TSMC's capacity has been fully booked by major customers, and even for Apple, one of the world's largest chip buyers, there is very limited room for temporary additional orders. Notably, according to Bloomberg, Apple has begun exploring diversification of chip foundry sources—engaging in preliminary negotiations with Intel and Samsung Electronics to discuss the possibility of manufacturing core processors domestically in the U.S., which would provide Apple with a "backup option" outside of TSMC.

The second line: Global memory chip shortage. Insufficient memory supply is the direct driver forcing Apple to directly remove high-spec options. Cook admitted that rising memory prices are significantly eroding the company's profits; previously buffered by inventory, the quarters of December last year and March this year were not significantly affected, but the June quarter will feel a significant impact, and "the impact will intensify in the coming quarters."

The intersection of these two shortage lines points to the same source of demand—the AI wave. As the focus of the artificial intelligence industry shifts from cloud training to local inference, both the advanced process capacity needed for producing AI chips and the large-capacity memory required for AI servers and terminal devices are facing explosive demand growth Industry predictions suggest that semiconductor giants like Samsung and SK Hynix will struggle to keep up with this growth rate in the short term, and the memory supercycle originally expected to end in 2026 is likely to extend to 2027.

AI Localization Deployment Ignites Mac Demand

While the supply side faces dual pressures, the demand side has also caught Apple off guard. Cook stated in the earnings call that Apple underestimated the enormous demand from users for running AI and agent tools locally, "Both of these products are excellent platforms for AI and agent tools, and customers' awareness of them is faster than we expected, so we are seeing demand that exceeds expectations."

This demand explosion did not come out of nowhere. With the popularity of open-source AI agent tools like OpenClaw, developers and tech users are increasingly inclined to deploy AI models locally rather than relying on cloud services. The Mac mini, with its compact design, powerful M-series chips, and relatively controllable costs, has become an ideal platform for local AI inference; the Mac Studio meets the needs of heavy users with higher performance specifications.

Cook also specifically pointed out that the Mac mini is not only popular in the U.S. market but also performs well overseas. In the March quarter, it became the best-selling desktop computer in China. Additionally, Apple's newly launched entry-level MacBook Neo received a "better than expected" market response, and the Mac product line set a historical record for new user acquisition in the March quarter.

Regarding the timeline for supply and demand recovery, Cook provided a rather cautious expectation—"The Mac mini and Mac Studio may take a few months to reach supply-demand balance." This "few months" estimated timeframe conveniently covers the widely anticipated release window for the next-generation M5 series chip Mac products, suggesting that supply tightness is likely to continue until the new product upgrade cycle.

Price Increase Ripple: Cost Transmission from Apple to the Entire Industry

Apple's strategy of addressing shortages through "configuration upgrades + price increases" is triggering a chain reaction in the global PC market. According to PCMag, AI companies are absorbing global memory and storage supplies in large quantities, forcing nearly all PC manufacturers to raise product prices. Recently, Microsoft has already taken the lead in raising prices for its Surface laptop product line. Apple had previously maintained stable prices, but this strategy is clearly becoming unsustainable—Cook stated that Apple's memory chip spending in the last quarter has exceeded that of previous quarters and expects memory prices to continue to rise in the coming quarters.

Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives noted in a client report that despite limited Mac supply, Apple's revenue guidance for the third fiscal quarter is far above Wall Street expectations—the company expects revenue in the June quarter to grow 14% to 17% year-over-year, while the market consensus is only 9%. Apple's stock price rose over 5% in after-hours trading following the earnings report.

However, it is important to be cautious, as Apple's current strong guidance is primarily benefiting from the ongoing momentum of the iPhone 17 "supercycle" and a 28% sales growth in Greater China Mac revenue increased by approximately 6% year-on-year to $8.4 billion, exceeding the expected $8.02 billion, but the growth rate has clearly lagged behind the 22% of iPhone and 16% of services. Before the supply constraints are substantially alleviated, the Mac product line may continue to drag down Apple's expansion speed in the AI developer ecosystem.

Made in America: Long-term Layout of Supply Chain Restructuring

Beneath the surface of the short-term supply crisis, Apple is undergoing a more profound geographical restructuring of its supply chain. On February 24 this year, Apple officially announced that it would produce the Mac mini domestically in the United States for the first time. Cook stated on social media that as part of the company's $600 billion investment plan, the Mac mini will be produced later this year at a new Foxconn factory north of Houston, Texas.

This is a key step for Apple in further expanding its manufacturing footprint in the U.S. after launching AI server assembly in Houston in 2025. Apple's Chief Operating Officer Sabih Khan led the media on a public tour of the two main buildings of the factory for the first time—one of which is assembling AI servers, while the other will be transformed into a 220,000 square foot manufacturing space for the Mac mini.

The driving factors behind this layout are worth analyzing in depth. First is the pressure from the tariff environment— the U.S. government has repeatedly pressured Apple to move production lines for major products like the iPhone back to the U.S., even considering imposing an additional 25% import tariff on iPhones sold in the U.S. Apple chose to use the relatively niche and controllable demand for the Mac mini as a pilot for this return, which is both a strategic response to political pressure and a pragmatic choice seeking a balance between cost and risk.

Additionally, Apple disclosed a set of noteworthy data in its official press release: the company is exceeding its commitment to U.S. chip procurement—by 2026, Apple is expected to procure over 100 million advanced process chips from TSMC's Arizona factory, showing significant growth compared to 2025. Meanwhile, Apple has cumulatively procured over 20 billion U.S.-made chips from 24 factories across 12 states, involving core partners like TSMC, Broadcom, and Texas Instruments, surpassing its previously set targets.

These two sets of data outline a clear picture: Apple is gradually building a domestic supply chain that spans chip manufacturing, packaging testing, and final assembly to hedge against geopolitical risks and uncertainties arising from excessive supply chain concentration.

In-depth Perspective: Reconstruction of Pricing Power

Through this product delisting incident, three deeper industry trends are emerging.

First, the demand for AI infrastructure is spreading from the cloud to local environments. In the past, the market generally believed that the demand for AI computing power was mainly concentrated in data centers and cloud servers, but the explosive demand for Mac series products indicates that developers and technical users are rapidly increasing their demand for local AI deployment. This trend signifies a fundamental change in the structure of AI computing power demand—from "centralized" cloud training to "distributed" local inference and edge deployment. In this pattern, devices with high-performance local computing capabilities are becoming an important component of AI infrastructure Apple has taken an early lead in this emerging demand area thanks to the advantages of its M-series chips in energy efficiency, but the vulnerability of its supply chain has also become a soft spot for its expansion.

Secondly, the structural tension in the chip supply chain is reshaping product strategies. Whether it is the capacity bottleneck of advanced process SoCs or the shortage of memory chips, they point to the same issue—global semiconductor supply chains are clearly lacking in resilience when responding to the AI-driven demand explosion. Apple's decision to cancel high-end options to ensure the supply of basic models is essentially a "price-for-volume" strategy: sacrificing the coverage of high-end SKUs to ensure the accessibility of the main shipping models, thereby maintaining user base growth during the rapid market expansion phase. However, the cost of this strategy cannot be ignored—the loss of professional users may create opportunities for competitors to enter the market.

Thirdly, "Made in America" is moving from a political slogan to substantive capacity layout. The domestic production of Mac mini and the commitment to localize chip procurement are both a response to tariff pressures from Apple and may also become a barometer for the geographical restructuring of industry supply chains. With the gradual release of capacity from TSMC's Arizona factory and Apple's preliminary exploration of Intel and Samsung's foundry options, the trend of "regionalized supply in the global consumer electronics industry" may accelerate further in the future. However, in the short term, this transformation still faces many challenges in terms of capacity scale and technological processes, making it difficult to fundamentally change Apple's dependence on the Asian supply chain.

For Apple, whether the short-term "growing pains" of the Mac product line can be alleviated after the release of the M5 series chips will determine whether it can maintain its first-mover advantage in the wave of AI localization deployment. For the entire industry, Apple's experience once again confirms a judgment: before the global semiconductor supply chain truly achieves supply-demand rebalancing, the explosive demand for AI infrastructure will continue to test the supply chain resilience of every market participant