Comment by GeekyBear
21 hours ago
> Kissing ass gets you in the door with TSMC
No, but being a long term partner gets you preferential treatment.
TSMC has literally been cutting Apple special lower pricing deals while signaling that given Nvidia's extravagant margins, they expect them to pay more per wafer than a normal customer.
> TSMC hints at price increase for Nvidia as response to its booming AI hardware business
https://www.techspot.com/news/103325-tsmc-hints-increasing-c...
Case in point:
> "TSMC's contribution to the world and the tech industry is under-represented by its financial results." Huang added that "raising prices is consistent with the value they deliver. I'm very happy to see them succeed."
Lowering prices for Apple while simultaneously raising them for Nvidia doesn't really support your argument.
If Nvidia is willing to pay up front to increase TSMC's production capacity, then they get wafers out of that new production capacity.
It perfectly supports my argument, if Apple has reduced access to TSMC capacity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_elasticity_of_demand
And they objectively do. In 2019 Apple had TSMC 5nm all to themselves; now they're fighting with Nvidia for capacity. Nevermind the rumor that Apple is sampling Intel Foundry Services, the mere fact that there is TSMC 2nm and 3nm capacity Apple is unwilling to buy is proof that their agreement is limited.
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