They are definitely fabless. But in reality, fabs are not loaded by 100%. Usual practice, fabs loaded to 60-90% depend on local things, and due to incompatibili

They are definitely fabless. But in reality, fabs are not loaded by 100%. Usual practice, fabs loaded to 60-90% depend on local things, and due to incompatibilities. Slightly more details. Usual fab cannot just take masks and copy them to other fab. Rumors said, Intel achieved so high level of fabs compatibility, that they could manufacture any chip on any their fab. Other manufacturers work on iterative methodology, so first 1-3 batches used to test and improve masks and tune technology, and at next batches give good product output (moderate percent of defects). Other important thing, different fabs of even one manufacturer, usually have different tools, and could do different resolution. So in reality, when we hear about chips deficit, it really means, that some ONE resolution used by 90% of clients is overloaded. So, if fabless manufacturer is not tightly entangled to some resolution, it could theoretically use all free resources of all fabs, and got production at any moment, even when all others suffer deficit.