A maxed-out Mac Studio with the M5 Ultra will set you back $18,299
THE SO WHAT
Top-end AI-capable desktops pushing past $18,000 are a symptom of the same RAM and chip constraints squeezing data centers—local AI horsepower is now priced like specialized production gear, not office PCs. Teams should be explicit about which workflows truly need on-desk compute versus being pushed to shared or cloud resources as hardware costs spike.
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