Ukraine-based app developer MacPaw has partnered with AI company Liquid AI to power its products with locally hosted AI models, starting with its AI assistant Eney. The company also plans to offer the underlying tech stack to developers through its SetApp subscription store, which already counts more than 150,000 paying users.
A Local AI Partnership Takes Shape
MacPaw, known for Mac utility apps, unveiled Eney last year. Now, Liquid AI is building an on-device inference system called Elix and a local memory system specifically for MacPaw. The goal is to run AI directly on the device rather than relying on the cloud.
Liquid AI co-founder and CEO Ramin Hasani explained the approach. "Before training our models, we select an architecture that is different and tailored to the hardware. That allows us to really have the most efficient version of intelligence that runs directly on the device, with benefits like privacy and security," he said.
Hasani added that Liquid AI focuses on performance for different capabilities, a point of contrast with Apple, which already provides its own local models to developers. Liquid AI claims its models are more efficient and tailored to hardware.
Offline Assistants and Agentic Workflows
MacPaw CEO Oleksandr Kosovan highlighted what local models enable for users. He claims locally hosted AI models allow offline use of assistants and agentic workflows. That means Eney could keep working without an internet connection, a meaningful shift for privacy-conscious users.
Hasani also described how the models improve over time. "We are also building a customization stack around models. This means that with user input, the models can use the data and improve. We want our models to be adaptable and become more intelligent over time," he said.
That adaptability is central to Liquid AI's pitch. The company selects architecture tailored to hardware before training models, aiming for efficiency on the device itself.
SetApp Prepares for AI Apps
Stay ahead of the AI curve
The most important updates, news, and content — delivered weekly.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
MacPaw is preparing SetApp, its subscription-based app store, for a wave of AI-powered applications. The company is experimenting with credit-based pricing, which allows users to perform AI operations based on credits and task complexity. This approach is not yet finalized.
Beyond local models, the platform will provide access to cloud models from companies like Google. That mix could give developers a one-stop shop for both on-device and cloud AI, a potential competitive advantage over Apple's local-only offerings.
Kosovan said MacPaw wants to make the local processing architecture available to developers. That future intent could open SetApp to a broader ecosystem of AI apps, all running on Mac hardware.
A Strategic Differentiation Play
The partnership appears to be a strategic move to differentiate from Apple's local models. While Apple offers its own on-device AI to developers, Liquid AI claims its models are tailored to hardware and focus on performance for different capabilities.
MacPaw's plan to offer both local and cloud models through one platform could appeal to developers who want flexibility. The credit-based pricing experiment also signals a shift in how AI features might be monetized in app stores.
SetApp's existing base of over 150,000 paying users gives MacPaw a ready audience for these new AI tools. The company is betting that developers will want access to the same local AI stack it is building with Liquid AI.
Broader Context and Industry Moves
The news comes amid a busy period for tech acquisitions and funding. Bending Spoons agreed to buy Airtable for $1.28 billion, while Sequoia led a $1 billion round for nuclear startup Valar Atomics. Okta also acquired AI security startup Permiso for about $200 million.