PrismML releases Bonsai 27B, claiming first major AI model of its size fit for iPhone

AI startup PrismML released its Bonsai 27B model, claiming it is the first major AI model of its size that can run on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac. CEO Babak Hassibi told CNBC that Apple is evaluating the startup's technology, though discussions are early. The model achieves up to 163 tok/s on an NVIDIA RTX 5090 and fits within the memory constraints of a 12 GB iPhone at about 4 GB in 1-bit mode.

PrismML is back in the news today after the AI startup’s CEO told CNBC that Apple is looking at the company’s technology. The company has also released its Bonsai 27B model that it says runs on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. PrismML first made headlines last week https://9to5mac.com/2026/07/09/report-apple-interested-in-startup-that-runs-giant-ai-models-on-iphone-without-servers/ when The Information reported on the AI startup. That report included mention of PrismML holding meetings with Apple about “ways it could use its technology.” The report also noted PrismML’s Bonsai 27B model, scheduled for release today. As expected, PrismML has now released that model: Bonsai 27B reaches up to 163 tok/s in 1-bit and 134 tok/s in Ternary on an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090. On an M5 Max, it reaches up to 87 tok/s in 1-bit and 58 tok/s in Ternary. Fitting a phone is a stricter gate than storage numbers suggest. A phone never exposes its full memory to an app – a 12 GB iPhone offers about 6 GB for the model to use on-device, and the model shares that budget with its KV cache and activations. No conventional build of a 27B model comes close to clearing it. At about 4 GB, 1-bit Bonsai 27B is the first to pass through with room to work. The press release specifically mentions running the new model natively on Apple hardware: Bonsai 27B runs natively on Apple devices Mac, iPhone, iPad via MLX and on NVIDIA GPUs via CUDA, through custom low-bit kernels built for its hybrid-attention architecture. Model weights are available today under the Apache 2.0 License. With this release, we’re offering a free, limited-time developer preview API so developers can easily try our model. Meanwhile, PrismML CEO Babak Hassibi tells CNBC that Apple is interested in PrismML’s tech: PrismML CEO Babak Hassibi told CNBC that Apple and other companies have been evaluating the startup’s models and measuring their speed, energy efficiency and performance on devices. “They’re really evaluating our technology right now,” Hassibi said of Apple. He characterized the discussions as very early and said it remains unclear where they will lead, but that “things are progressing nicely.” Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. You can learn more about PrismML’s Bonsai 27B model here https://prismml.com/news/bonsai-27b , and read the CNBC piece in full here https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/14/apple-prismml-ai-compression-iphone.html . 9to5Mac’s Take It’s worth separating two things here. We’ll leave it to the AI experts to evaluate PrismML’s claims and technology. As for the Apple connection, it’s clear that the AI startup is touting communication with Apple as a way to generate buzz around its new release. It’s generally wise to keep any serious discussions between startups and Apple on the quieter side. Otherwise, an environment for strong skepticism https://x.com/markgurman/status/2077086368862199856 is created. At any rate, PrismML has managed to capture attention from The Information and CNBC around their latest release. Short-term mission accomplished. Do more with your Apple products Apple AirTag 2 | Add Find My tracking to keys, bags, bikes, more https://amzn.to/4vjNWN1 AirPods 4 | Apple’s newest wireless headphones https://amzn.to/43ndewV AirPods Pro 3 | Apple’s best wireless headphones https://amzn.to/4ut3FYp Beats USB-A to USB-C Cable | The official CarPlay cable https://amzn.to/4mpKs7K FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More. https://9to5mac.com/about/ affiliate our homepage http://9to5mac.com/ for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on exclusive stories https://9to5mac.com/feature/exclusive/ , reviews https://9to5mac.com/guides/review/ , how-tos https://9to5mac.com/guides/how-to/ , and subscribe to our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/9to5mac