[simonh]

Ive seen this suggested a few times and I don't believe it. Apple is only intersted in the latest cutting edge processes, those are the ones that give them competitive advantage. The problem is no process stays cutting edge forever. After a few years it becomes a commodity process.

That's not a problem for TSMC who has plenty of customers for commodity nodes, but it would be a millstone round Apple's neck. They don't want to be in the business of owning a commodity process line used by their competitors.