3 ms·

What would run afoul of antitrust laws? I don’t see it.

sofixa 4y ago
TSMC is a critical supplier of Apple and a bunch of Apple's competitors. Making it Apple-exclusive would kill AMD, Nvidia and most Android phones (Samsung and Huawei are the only exceptions using subpar non-TSMC chips) overnight. There is no way in hell that any antitrust regulator allows Apple to destroy their competitors with an anticompetitive purchase of a supplier.
- asah 4y ago
  ...but meanwhile it's still fine to corner the market on 3nm... (nevermind that modern chips are a hybrid of different feature sizes...)
  - John23832 4y ago
    Apple isn't cornering the market. Apple is buying all available supply for actual use. "Cornering the market" typically refers to controlling supply of a product to restrict supply to the larger market and drive up price.
- John23832 4y ago
  Apple buying TSMC doesn't necessarily mean that they are restricting the supply of their competitors. I think you're confused about what anti-trust is or how it works. A TSMC acquisition would only be subject to anti-trust if Apple restricted access to supplies that their competitors currently have access to. Buying/owning the means of supply for your competitors isn't subject to anti-trust. Apple would gladly continue supplying chips with TSMC. Their are fabs created for older features that Apple doesn't use that are core to TSMC's profitability. They're not going to cut that overnight. Especially under a COO-CEO like Cook. The monopolistic practice of acquisition would be to hamstring your competition. In this case, the acquisition would be based on synergy. Samsung, a phone competitor and also screen supplier to Apple, controls the OLED market. They are not subject to anti-trust because they supply a fair market. A more current example would be the Microsoft Activision acquisition. Microsofts defense in that is that they will continue supplying Call Of Duty (and similar high profile games) to competitors.

TSMC is a critical supplier of Apple and a bunch of Apple's competitors. Making it Apple-exclusive would kill AMD, Nvidia and most Android phones (Samsung and Huawei are the only exceptions using subpar non-TSMC chips) overnight. There is no way in hell that any antitrust regulator allows Apple to destroy their competitors with an anticompetitive purchase of a supplier.

asah 4y ago
...but meanwhile it's still fine to corner the market on 3nm... (nevermind that modern chips are a hybrid of different feature sizes...)
- John23832 4y ago
  Apple isn't cornering the market. Apple is buying all available supply for actual use. "Cornering the market" typically refers to controlling supply of a product to restrict supply to the larger market and drive up price.
John23832 4y ago
Apple buying TSMC doesn't necessarily mean that they are restricting the supply of their competitors. I think you're confused about what anti-trust is or how it works. A TSMC acquisition would only be subject to anti-trust if Apple restricted access to supplies that their competitors currently have access to. Buying/owning the means of supply for your competitors isn't subject to anti-trust. Apple would gladly continue supplying chips with TSMC. Their are fabs created for older features that Apple doesn't use that are core to TSMC's profitability. They're not going to cut that overnight. Especially under a COO-CEO like Cook. The monopolistic practice of acquisition would be to hamstring your competition. In this case, the acquisition would be based on synergy. Samsung, a phone competitor and also screen supplier to Apple, controls the OLED market. They are not subject to anti-trust because they supply a fair market. A more current example would be the Microsoft Activision acquisition. Microsofts defense in that is that they will continue supplying Call Of Duty (and similar high profile games) to competitors.