OpenClaw has gone viral, and the hardware is completely sold out! What chips are used inside it?

01 How did the Mac mini become so popular, and why in particular?

In December 2025, OpenClaw developer Peter Steinberg open-sourced the project code on GitHub. With the highly imaginative positioning of "Let AI truly work on your computer," it quickly ignited the enthusiasm of developers worldwide: within just a few days, the project's star count exceeded 60,000, and within three months, it skyrocketed to 260,000, setting a phenomenal growth record.

                                                          Source: X

The buzz quickly spilled over from developer and tech circles, drawing widespread attention and participation from general users.

On X (formerly Twitter), photos of multiple Mac Minis stacked together went viral, with captions capturing that particular buzz of a new technological wave: "My home AI computing cluster is online!" "The future CEO and his employees." Others even remarked, "Invest in your brain, starting with hardware." Meanwhile, tech bloggers rushed to create "The Ultimate Guide to Building a Mac Mini AI Server," and YouTube was quickly flooded with numerous tutorial videos.

Running 4 OpenClaws instances on 3 Mac Studio instances and 1 Mac Mini. Source: X

By January 2026, Mac mini sales had already seen a significant surge driven by the OpenClaw craze, with some high-end configurations temporarily out of stock. As February arrived, the momentum intensified further. According to third-party data, driven by this "Lobster Fever," Mac mini sales recently surged by 300%. This wave of enthusiasm has persisted, with discussions heating up, inventory running low, and shipping times extended—cementing the Mac mini's status as one of the most popular deployment platforms for OpenClaw.

Currently, mainstream OpenClaw deployment methods can be broadly categorized into four types: dedicated local hardware, with the Mac Mini being the typical representative; direct installation on personal computers; deployment on cloud servers (VPS) such as Tencent Cloud and Alibaba Cloud; and hosted products provided by model vendors.

Among these, direct installation on personal computers consumes the primary device's resources and carries the highest risk. Cloud server deployment lacks access to local files and desktop context, limiting its capabilities. Hosted products from model vendors have a lower barrier to entry, but their functionality is often constrained by platform limitations. In contrast, dedicated local hardware not only preserves the local environment but also ensures a "one device, one purpose" approach.

OpenClaw is being hailed as "your first AI employee." To keep it running online around the clock, many users opt for a dedicated standalone device. For these types of local AI tools, users value not just performance, but also the ability to stay on long-term, ease of deployment, quiet and stable operation, and isolation from their main work computer.

The Mac mini happens to be perfectly suited to meet these needs. Since its launch in 2005, Apple has positioned the Mac mini as a compact, entry-level, and relatively affordable desktop Mac, often referred to as "the most affordable and most compact Mac."

Looking at it today, the Mac mini M4 is favored for four main reasons:

First, its relatively low barrier to entry makes it ideal for users who want to experiment with local AI without a significant upfront investment.

Second, it is well-suited for long-term operation. Its small size, low power consumption, and quiet operation naturally align with the idea of "dedicating a machine to run continuously."

Third, the M4 generation is naturally aligned with the AI narrative. The base model comes equipped with the Apple M4 chip and 16GB of unified memory, whose architecture is better suited for AI tasks involving multi-component collaboration.

Fourth, the logic of using a dedicated machine. Many users are unwilling to deploy high-authority AI Agents directly on their primary computers. A compact, affordable dedicated host is far more acceptable.

More importantly, against the backdrop of rising storage prices, Apple has not significantly raised the price of the Mac mini M4. The base model starts at around $549–$599 overseas. At this price point, it is hard to find another device that offers both local AI computing power and energy efficiency, while balancing size, power consumption, and deployment convenience.

This is why the Mac mini, once a relatively low-profile compact desktop, has been thrust back into the spotlight amid the current local AI boom.

02  Which chip is used inside?

Shifting focus back to the hardware, according to an iFixit teardown of the Mac mini M4 (2024), the device’s core components include the Apple M4 SoC, Micron LPDDR5 RAM, and SanDisk NAND flash storage. It also features a Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet controller, a USI wireless module, as well as power, interface, and peripheral ICs from TI, ADI, Renesas, onsemi, Winbond, GigaDevice, Genesys and other suppliers.

Let's take a closer look at which chips are used in the Mac mini M4:

                                           First side of the motherboard

Red: Apple APL1206/339S01548 E M4 10-core application processor with integrated GPUOrange: Micron MT62F1G64D4AS-026 XT:C 8GB LPDDR5 SDRAMYellow: Apple APL1066/343S00710 power management IC (PMIC)Green: Apple APL1067/343S00683? power management IC (PMIC)Light Blue: Likely Apple U0P4F7-Y2 Thunderbolt 4 controllerDark Blue: Winbond W25Q64NE 8MB serial NOR flashPurple: Likely Infineon CYUSB2408 USB level shifter

                                                 First side of the motherboard

Red: Winbond W25X40CL 4Mb serial NOR flashOrange: Texas Instruments TPS628502 2A adjustable step-down converterYellow: ADI DC-DC converterGreen: Texas Instruments TPS715A01 80mA adjustable LDO regulatorLight Blue: Texas Instruments TPS2559 power distribution switchDark Blue: Texas Instruments INA190A2 bidirectional current-sense amplifierPurple: Texas Instruments TLV7021 single-channel comparator

Red: Likely Parade Technologies PS190 DisplayPort to HDMI converterOrange: Genesys Logic GL3590-TBYS2 3-port USB Type-C SuperSpeed+ & 3-port USB Type-A SuperSpeed+ hub controllerYellow: Macronix MX25V2035FZUI 2Mb serial NOR flashGreen: Texas Instruments SN26A23 USB Type-C controllerLight Blue: GigaDevice GD25Q80E 1MB serial NOR flashDark Blue: Broadcom BCM57762 Gigabit Ethernet controllerPurple: Winbond W25Q64NE 8MB serial NOR flash

Red: Apple APL5791/343S00709 power management IC (PMIC)Orange: Renesas multiphase controllerYellow: Cirrus Logic CS42L84A audio codecGreen: Texas Instruments SN012776B0 audio amplifierLight Blue: Texas Instruments TPS628502 2A adjustable step-down converterDark Blue: Texas Instruments TPS621371 step-down converterPurple: Likely Renesas PWM DC-DC converter controller

Red: Onsemi NCP380LMU05AATBG power distribution switchOrange: Likely Renesas mixed-signal arrayGreen: Texas Instruments TLV75801P 500mA adjustable LDO regulatorLight Blue: Texas Instruments INA190A2 bidirectional current-sense amplifierDark Blue: Texas Instruments INA190A3 bidirectional current-sense amplifierYellow: Texas Instruments TLV7011 single-channel comparatorPurple: Texas Instruments TLV9051 single operational amplifier

                                                   Front side of the SSD

    Red: SanDisk SDMVGKLK2 128G NAND flash

                    SSD Second Side

Red: SanDisk SDMVGKLK2 128GB NAND flashOrange: Apple 338S00600-A0 power management IC (PMIC)Yellow: Texas Instruments TPS62180 6A synchronous step-down converter

                                                         Wireless circuit board

Red: Possibly the USI 339S01162 Bluetooth and Wi-Fi module