Apple is surprised by the demand for AI-powered Macs.

Apple’s iPhone sales and services revenue captured the most attention in the tech giant’s most recent quarter, but Macs quietly pulled ahead, driven by increased demand for AI workloads.

Wall Street investors expected Mac sales to be less than $8 billion, but Apple reported $8.4 billion in the second quarter that ended March 28. This is a notable achievement for a non-core part of the tech giant’s business. Additionally, investors ahead of earnings believed Mac sales would be essentially flat year-over-year. Instead, Mac sales grew 6% annually, the company told investors. The company’s total revenue was $111.2 billion, up 17% from the same period last year.

Apple has captured a share of Mac growth with recent product launches, including the well-received MacBook Neo. But the fun and colorful computer was only on sale for a few weeks after pre-orders began on March 4th. In reality, most products shipped in mid to late March, and some demand may have been pushed into April as certain models sold out.

Apple CEO Tim Cook told analysts during the company’s second-quarter earnings call Thursday that customer demand for Neo was “off the charts” and higher than Apple expected. He also noted that Apple set a record quarter for first-time Mac customers, thanks in part to Neo.

Cook attributed the growth in Mac sales to the use of platforms for running local AI models, such as OpenClaw. This has surprised Apple somewhat, with the Mac mini and Mac Studio devices selling out in recent weeks.

Cook said of these Mac sales, “They’re both amazing platforms for AI and agent tools, and we’re seeing higher demand than we expected because customer awareness of them is happening faster than we expected.” He also noted that the Mac mini is the best-selling desktop in the Chinese market, which has recently been caught up in the OpenClaw craze.

Nonetheless, Mac sales were flat quarter over quarter, suggesting that new demand has not yet expanded. Cook said it could take “many months” for Apple to reach supply-demand balance for the Mac mini and Studio models.

“We’re not at a point where we’re saying these (restrictions) will end any time soon, and that’s not inherently a problem other than underestimating demand,” Cook explained.

Corporate demand for Mac was also strong. Apple noted that several large companies, including Perplexity, have chosen Mac as their preferred platform for building enterprise-grade AI assistants.

He also said Apple is experiencing “supply constraints for MacBook Neo” and has even seen school systems like Kansas City Public Schools abandon Chromebooks for Neo.