Sipeed MaixStation: A 128GB Local AI Box That Claims to Beat DGX Spark
Sipeed, a Chinese maker of developer boards, has revealed the MaixStation, a palm-sized local AI computer with up to 128GB of memory. It expects to charge about $3,999 for that version when a Kickstarter campaign opens at the end of 2026, a little over half the list price of NVIDIA’s DGX Spark.
In short
The MaixStation pairs Axera’s new AX8860P chip with 128GB of LPDDR5X at 273 GB/s, the same memory bandwidth as DGX Spark and AMD’s Ryzen AI Halo. Sipeed says it runs about 10% faster than DGX Spark on Qwen models. It is not on sale yet and has no independent tests. If you need a local AI box this year, a 128GB Strix Halo mini PC remains the safer buy.
What Sipeed announced
An 11 × 11 × 3 cm Linux box with 32GB or 128GB of memory, about 40W of typical power over USB-C, a 10G SFP+ port and one PCIe 5.0 SSD slot.
The 6nm AX8860P, unveiled by Axera at the China International Industrial Fair, has 16 small Arm Cortex-A55 cores; the heavy lifting runs on its NPU, rated at 256 TOPS in FP4. Sipeed lists Debian 13 with vLLM, SGLang, PyTorch, llama.cpp and Ollama, and says two units linked by a cable can run a 284B-parameter DeepSeek V4-Flash. Sipeed told Tom’s Hardware it expects about $3,999 for 128GB; CNX Software says the 32GB model should cost under $2,000. Units would ship within three months after the campaign closes.
| Machine | Memory | Price | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sipeed MaixStation | 128GB | ~$3,999 (expected) | Kickstarter, end of 2026 |
| NVIDIA DGX Spark | 128GB | $6,950 list | On sale |
| AMD Ryzen AI Halo (PRO 495) | 192GB | $7,299.99 (Linux) | On sale |
How credible is the speed claim?
Plausible for text generation, unproven for the rest: all three machines share 273 GB/s of bandwidth, which largely sets generation speed.
Sipeed’s charts put the MaixStation ahead of DGX Spark on a 27B dense and a 35B mixture-of-experts Qwen model in FP4, with speculative decoding off on both. Its page calls them “today’s conservative measurements.” Tom’s Hardware finds the generation claim plausible but notes that prompt processing depends on raw compute, where a lead is harder to believe.
What it means for buyers
Don’t wait for it if you need a local AI machine before spring 2027. Watch it if you want a low-power Linux box for 27B to 125B models.
A Kickstarter backing is not a store purchase: dates slip and specs can change. Arm cores also mean no Windows and fewer apps than an x86 mini PC. The price isn’t locked either: TrendForce expects DRAM contract prices to rise about 20% this quarter. A 128GB Ryzen AI Max+ 395 mini PC runs the same class of models today, with published benchmarks. Our DGX Spark vs Strix Halo comparison and best mini PC for local AI guide explain the trade-offs; AMD’s 192GB Ryzen AI Halo is the next step up. Current offers are on our verified deals page.
Sources
- Sipeed, MaixStation product page (specifications, software, benchmark charts)
- Tom’s Hardware, Sipeed reveals DGX Spark and Ryzen AI Halo rival, expected at $3,999 (Oct 15, 2026)
- CNX Software, Axera AX8860P takes on NVIDIA DGX Spark (Oct 19, 2026)
- TrendForce, DRAM prices seen rising 20% QoQ in 4Q26 (Oct 20, 2026)