[Maursault]

> The only real option Apple would have...

TSMC has a market cap of $356B and maybe $30B in cash. Apple has a market cap of $3.25T and over $200B in cash. Surely you are overlooking a possible option here, which is Apple acquiring TSMC. I don't see it as likely, but it is an option.

[ren_engineer]

Taiwan's government would never allow TSMC to be acquired, it's key to their national security

[e40]

If Apple owned TSMC, wouldn't that make Taiwan more secure, since the US would have more of an interest?

[Bud]

Not really. Our interest in TSMC and other tech assets in Taiwan is already enormous. Any impact would really be on the margins.

[dotnet00]

I really doubt that would be allowed to go through due to the conflicting interests it would create regarding chips produced for all other competitors (AMD, Google, Qualcomm etc). It would be seen as similar to the NVIDIA buyout of ARM.