Is local AI actually accessible? M5 Mac Studio wait times stretch to February
Marino4K · reddit · 2026-09-26
A Reddit discussion asks whether local AI is really accessible beyond enthusiast circles: high-spec M5 Mac Studios are backordered from late October to February, and other local-AI hardware is constantly sold out, raising questions about whether demand comes from individuals, corporations, or artificial scarcity. The author also argues the current 'free ride' of cheap frontier access won't last — subscription prices or usage limits will tighten — and asks where the inflection point lies between paying for Claude/GPT/Gemini and buying thousands of dollars of hardware, plus what the average local-AI setup actually looks like.
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