Ghost Says $3,499 Core Runs AI On Device; Web Search Needs Internet

TechCrunch reports that Ghost came out of stealth on 5 October 2026, with an $11 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Its product is Core, a $3,499 computer that Ghost’s website describes as a personal AI computer that “runs models entirely on device.” Ghost’s own pages add a second layer: its support page says Core still needs an internet connection for web search, email and software updates. This publication read Ghost’s website and privacy policy and TechCrunch’s report, tested nothing, and verified none of the claims independently.

What Ghost Says Core Is

Ghost’s home page says Core “connects to your apps, files, and devices, builds context on your life over time, and works continuously to help you, not just when you ask.” The product page lists a price of $3,499 and says the first batch ships on 31 October, with a one-year warranty, a 30-day return and free shipping for batch 1.

The pages give the hardware: an NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell SFF Edition GPU with 24 GB of GDDR7 ECC memory and 432 GB/s of memory bandwidth, an AMD Ryzen 5 7600 with 6 cores and 12 threads, 64 GB of DDR5 memory and a 1 TB NVMe SSD. The product page lists a stainless-steel enclosure.

Four models are listed on Ghost’s pages: Qwen 3.8-Next, Qwen 3.8-27B, Gemma 4-31B and Muse-Glimmer-30B. TechCrunch’s account lists three of them, without Muse-Glimmer-30B, and says the founder told it users can install other models from Hugging Face or their own weights.

Where Ghost Says the Work Happens

The home page says: “Everything you do with Core is run locally using models on-device. No data ever leaves your home, and your AI is owned entirely by you.” The support page says Core “runs AI entirely on-device with no subscription” and that it “encrypts, stores, and processes your data entirely on-device.”

The support page also says Core provides an endpoint compatible with the OpenAI Responses API, so its local models can power other apps, scripts and agents “with no per-token inference fees.” Ghost’s About page says people should not “rent your own intelligence back by the token.”

Where the Pages Say Something Goes Out

Asked whether Core works without the cloud, the support page answers: “Yes. Core runs its AI and stores its memory locally. You’ll still need an internet connection to access features like web search, email and over-the-air software updates & fixes.”

The privacy policy says Core “does not use a remote AI model as a fallback for its local conversational AI or memory processing.” It adds: “Online features can still send task information to external services.”

For a Ghost-managed service, the policy says the request travels from Core to Ghost’s managed-service gateway, then to a third-party provider, and the response returns the same way. It says the request “contains the information needed for the task,” such as a search query, and “can include personal details from your task.”

The policy says Ghost’s gateway forwards that content “without saving it in databases, logs or backups.” It also says the third-party provider receives and processes the request content, that the provider’s retention depends on its own policies, and that Ghost’s decision not to store forwarded content “is not a guarantee that the provider does not store it.” It says users can replace Ghost-managed services with their own provider keys.

For phones and computers connecting to Core away from home, the policy describes a remote-access relay that it says forwards encrypted traffic without saving it, and it says users can substitute their own connection, such as Tailscale.

What Ghost Says It Does and Does Not Collect

The policy says Ghost does not automatically collect product telemetry, usage analytics or diagnostic reports from Core, and that diagnostic material reaches Ghost only when a user includes it in a support or bug report. It says Ghost does not keep a cloud copy of on-device conversations, files, connected-app content or memories.

It also says the no-storage commitments “concern forwarded content; they do not mean that Ghost holds no account, connection, purchase or support information.” The policy says Ghost keeps records such as device identifiers, authorization records and service-usage counts.

On what Core can hold, the policy says screen history is off until a user enables it and that, while enabled, it captures screen images and recognized text. It says imported browser passwords and signed-in sessions are saved on Core, and that a memory can remain after the original source is removed.

What TechCrunch Reports About the Company

TechCrunch reports that Ghost announced its emergence from stealth and an $11 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz on Monday, with Abstract, Audacious Ventures, SV Angel and Nova also in the round. It reports that pre-orders opened that day, with shipping “scheduled for the last week of October,” and that the founder and a team of four currently manufacture the units at a San Francisco facility.

TechCrunch also reports that founder and CEO Javaid describes a firewall the team is building around how the agent uses its credentials. It quotes him saying the firewall “monitors every outgoing network request on the computer and if it sees the agent performing a sanctioned action or exfiltrating data it shouldn’t, it rejects the request and flags it for user review.” That is the founder’s description as TechCrunch quotes it; this publication did not see the firewall.

The Structural Read

The pages describe the line in three places, and each sentence has its own scope. The home-page sentence is about “Everything you do with Core”. The support-page sentence says the AI and the memory run and are stored locally, and that some features need an internet connection. The policy sentence is about “Online features”, which it says “can still send task information to external services”.

Ghost’s no-storage statements concern forwarded content only, and the policy says so itself: they “do not mean that Ghost holds no account, connection, purchase or support information”. It lists records Ghost keeps, such as device identifiers, authorization records and service-usage counts.

For two routes, the privacy policy names an alternative: users can replace Ghost-managed services with their own provider keys, and the remote-access relay with their own connection, such as Tailscale. The policy says using both “can remove Ghost’s gateway and relay from those data paths”.

Three Implications

WHAT GHOST SAYS STAYS ON THE DEVICE The AI models and the memory, according to its support page and policy. The policy says Core “does not use a remote AI model as a fallback for its local conversational AI or memory processing”.

WHAT GHOST SAYS CAN GO OUT The support page says web search, email and updates need an internet connection. The policy says online features can send task information to external services, and that Ghost-managed services such as web search and phone calls go through a gateway Ghost says does not save the content. It says the third-party provider receives and processes the request, and that the provider’s own policies govern what it keeps.

WHAT THE SOURCES LEAVE OPEN Which online features a user enables, what Core’s traffic looks like, and whether the product ships and works as described are not established. This publication tested nothing and did not contact Ghost.

What Is Not Established

Every claim above is a statement by Ghost on its website and in its privacy policy, or by its founder as reported by TechCrunch. This publication did not test Core, did not see the product, and did not contact Ghost or its investors.

The sources this publication read do not state a valuation for the round. In the Ghost pages this publication read, no investors are named; that detail comes from TechCrunch.

In the Ghost pages this publication read, nothing says which of the features that need an internet connection a given user will enable, or how many users will enable them. This publication did not test which features send data, or what a user’s traffic looks like.

The two sources give different shipping wording: Ghost’s pages say 31 October, and TechCrunch says the last week of October.

The Bottom Line

Ghost says Core, priced at $3,499 and due to ship on 31 October, runs its models and keeps its memory on the device. Its support page also says web search, email and updates need an internet connection. Its privacy policy says online features can send task information to external services, and that Ghost-managed services such as web search and phone calls go through a gateway Ghost says does not store the content. This publication tested none of it.