Apple’s latest earnings revealed an unexpected bright spot: Mac sales surpassed Wall Street expectations, driven by growing demand for artificial intelligence workloads. The company reported $8.4 billion in Mac revenue for the second quarter ending March 28, beating the forecasted low $8 billion range and marking a 6% year-over-year increase.
Apple attributed part of this growth to recent product launches, particularly the MacBook Neo, which CEO Tim Cook described as having "off the charts" demand — higher than the company anticipated. The Neo also helped set a record for new Mac customers during the quarter.
However, Cook noted that another key factor was the use of Macs for running local AI models, such as OpenClaw. This trend took Apple by surprise, leading to shortages of Mac mini and Mac Studio devices in recent weeks. Cook stated, “Both of these are amazing platforms for AI and agentic tools.”
The strong Mac performance contributed to Apple’s total revenue of $111.2 billion, up 17% from the same period last year. Despite supply constraints, Apple expects demand to remain high, with Mac mini, Mac Studio, and Neo likely constrained again next quarter.