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If TSMC are smart they will reserve some capacity for AMD, in order to keep AMD as a customer. Apple has no alternative, so no reason to give Apple exclusive ac
by runeks 6y ago
If TSMC are smart they will reserve some capacity for AMD, in order to keep AMD as a customer. Apple has no alternative, so no reason to give Apple exclusive access (unless Apple pays a ton for it).
- ashtonkem 6y agoOr, use all that Apple money and build more capacity. Perhaps even try to get money out of the US federal government in exchange for an agreement to build new factories in the lower 48.
- frakkingcylons 6y agoTSMC has announced they will build a 10nm fab in Arizona. But strategically speaking, Taiwan has an interest in keeping the latest and greatest fabs in Taiwan. It’s an incentive to keep the US invested in their defense.
- szundi 6y agoAnd a good incentive now that Intel loses ground slowly.
- baybal2 6y agoYou don't need latest, and greatest process to make chips for missiles.
- austinprete 6y agoSure, but you might need it to keep several trillion dollars of GDP afloat and ensure economic stability, which is a precursor for national security.
- ogre_codes 6y ago> Apple has no alternative, so no reason to give Apple exclusive access Likely billions of reasons. It's likely Apple pays a significant premium to get that capacity. AMD might not even mind this arrangement. Apple is essentially funding these die shrinks and AMD benefits down the road.
- sq_ 6y ago> AMD might not even mind this arrangement. Apple is essentially funding these die shrinks and AMD benefits down the road. Agree with that. AMD is doing amazingly well with just architectural improvements for Zen 3, so I’d bet they’re plenty happy to just let everyone else work out the kinks in 5nm before they hop on in a year or so.
- tomerico 6y agoApple is the one company that has proven itself as extremely capable of going more vertical when it is unhappy with its suppliers. This could be a case where if they don’t fulfill apple’s requests, they could lose Apple completely long term.
- gonzo 6y agoThis. Nobody thought Apple would make its own CPUs (SoCs, really.) Apple is going vertical.
- mensetmanusman 6y agoApple is vertical in design (IP, software) not manufacturing.
- thoughtsimple 6y agoAs far as I know, Apple doesn't manufacture anything. All manufacturing is outsourced. So it isn't likely that they will want to build a fab for several 10's of billions of dollars even thought they probably could.
- sudosysgen 6y agoApple isn't going to be replacing TSMC. It would take a few hundred billion dollars of investment at best.
- theandrewbailey 6y agoApple has deep enough pockets. They could stomach it.
- sudosysgen 6y agoI'm not convinced the advantage it might or might not conter would be worth hundreds of billions of dollars.