Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced the general availability of its fleet of new Mac Minis equipped with the Cupertino giant’s powerful M2 Pro chips.
With the addition of Apple’s latest models to its platform, AWS EC2 customers can now choose between Intel Core i7 x86 CPUs or two of Apple’s own SoCs: M1 and M2 Pro.
AWS envisions these customers building, testing, packaging and signing applications for Apple hardware, including Macs, iPhones and iPads, and Apple Watches.
With performance in mind, AWS has ordered a fleet of M2-powered Mac Mini models, each with a 12-core CPU, a 19-core GPU, 32GB of memory, and a 16-core Apple Neural Engine.
They also support up to 10Gbps Amazon VPC network bandwidth and up to 8Gbps Amazon EBS storage bandwidth thanks to high-speed Thunderbolt connections.
This configuration would cost at least USD 1,999 for customers directly through Apple’s website, making the idea of renting a Mac particularly attractive.
It’s unclear why AWS chose the M2 Pro chips over the Mac Mini’s cheaper M2 chips, but as far as experts can tell, only the Pro versions are available.
According to AWS, developers can currently use macOS Ventura on their rented Macs. A company spokesperson confirmed in a press release:
“AWS continues to enhance its offerings with the latest Apple silicon chips in the Mac lineup, so users can enjoy a broader selection of macOS environments when bringing their workloads to AWS. AWS provides updated EC2 macOS AMIs on a regular basis that include updates to packages owned by AWS and the latest fully-tested macOS version, which will include macOS Sonoma,” the statement reads.
M2 Pro Macs are available to rent from AWS now, but Apple’s licensing terms require customers to commit to 24-hour periods, starting at $37.44 per day. They will also only be available in the US West (Oregon) and US East (Ohio) regions, although additional locations are expected to be added soon.