See this report on Apple's CapEx spending in the last quarter: http://www.asymco.com/2012/10/31/hey-big-spender/ http://www.asymco.com/2012/10/31/hey-big-spende

See this report on Apple's CapEx spending in the last quarter: http://www.asymco.com/2012/10/31/hey-big-spender/ http://www.asymco.com/2012/10/31/hey-big-spender/ It's seen a big spike up and is ~ 30% more than Intel's $2.6 billion/quarter. And it spent three times in Q3 than Google, 4.8x Microsoft and 3.8x Amazon. Speculation in the comments are that Apple is paying an as yet unnamed firm, probably TSMC, to build/tool/operate one or several ARM SoC fabs.