[kube-system]

They’ve vertically integrated everything else, and they’ve had great success along the way. TSMC has other customers that compete with Apple for production capacity. And there’s geopolitical risk in the region where TSMC (currently) operates.

[samatman]

> They’ve vertically integrated everything else

What do you mean by this? Apple does very little manufacturing, they're famous for it.

[kube-system]

They’ve vertically integrated basically everything except manufacturing. Even compared to other tech giants who are highly integrated, they do a ton.

[coldtea]

>They’ve vertically integrated everything else

Only in that they design it, not in that they build it.

In that area they have "vertically integrated" nothing.

[bosswipe]

Apple hasn't been vertically integrated in any kind of manufacturing since the 90s. It's all built in China.

[rodgerd]

> They’ve vertically integrated everything else, and they’ve had great success along the way.

Why would they want to get into the low-margin, high-risk part of their supply chain, the bit where you can sink billions of dollars and have the value wiped out by a poor choice?

[threeseed]

Especially when semiconductor manufacturing has become a major geopolitical flashpoint between China, EU, US etc.

Apple would be insane to get into the middle of it.