> AFAIK TSMC is operating Apple’s machines. Nah they are TSMC's machines. Really expensive ones. Apple just has bought the production of certain fab before the

> AFAIK TSMC is operating Apple’s machines. Nah they are TSMC's machines. Really expensive ones. Apple just has bought the production of certain fab before they are built for certain amount of wavers (or time?) for X amount of money. Now TSMC is saying that due to inflation that X needs to be made bigger and thus renegotiating the contracts. (Also this paying upfront is really good for TSMC as they basically get interest free loan for building the fab) Also I think there is misconception that you could just buy a EUV lithography machines from ASML and start making chips. That is just one part (a very expensive hundreds of millions costing part) of a multistep process to make a modern microprocessor. In general it takes 3 to 4 months to go from a bare silicon wafer to a packaged chip. This is also why losing power/contamination can be really costly at a semiconductor fab as you can lose 1/4 to 1/3 of a years total production capacity even if you get the fab back to running next week.