LM Studio has acquired Locally AI, a popular app for running AI models locally on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Adrien Grondin, the creator of Locally AI, is joining the LM Studio team to lead work on native AI experiences across devices, according to LM Studio’s announcement.
What Locally AI Does
Locally AI lets users run AI models entirely on their Apple devices without sending data to external servers. The app gained traction among users who want local inference on mobile hardware, a use case that LM Studio has served on desktop but not on phones or tablets.
Cross-Device Agents
LM Studio said the acquisition is part of “doubling down on our mission of making AI accessible and useful to you, across your devices, wherever you go.” The company outlined plans to ship “new ways to use your models and agents seamlessly across your own devices,” per the blog post.
The “across your devices” framing suggests LM Studio is building toward a unified runtime where a model or agent started on a Mac can hand off or sync to an iPhone, or vice versa. That would differentiate LM Studio from competitors like Ollama and Jan, which are primarily desktop-focused.
Local-First Infrastructure
The acquisition fits into a broader trend toward local-first AI infrastructure. Tether’s QVAC SDK, released earlier this week, provides open-source peer-to-peer inference across devices. Apple’s on-device AI capabilities in its Foundation Models framework give native apps access to local inference. LM Studio adding mobile reach through Locally AI positions it as the desktop-to-mobile bridge for users who want to run their own models without cloud dependencies.
For the on-device agent space specifically, the acquisition matters because agents need to be available where users are, not just at a desk. Running a local agent on an iPhone that can access the same models and context as the desktop version is a prerequisite for the kind of persistent, personal AI assistant that multiple companies are racing to build. LM Studio is now the first local inference platform with native presence across Mac, iPhone, and iPad.
The company is also hiring application developers and system engineers, per its careers page.