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outside1234today at 3:14 PM4 repliesview on HN

Ha! Well if it isn't karma that has come for Apple.

(Apple is well known for shoving "lesser vendors" out of the way at TSMC)


Replies

ericmaytoday at 3:26 PM

Is it karma or is it just normal business activities? When you're a large player like this you get pricing power. If another large player moves in and also has pricing power then negotiations and things like that take place. Business deals, profits, &c. all ebb and flow and this is no different.

show 1 reply
cowsandmilktoday at 3:51 PM

Apple doesn’t operate the fab, TSMC does. Apple doesn’t shove anyone out of the way, TSMC makes those decisions. It is weird to blame Apple.

landl0rdtoday at 4:13 PM

Weird take. If you want to undertake approximately a bajillion dollars in capex to prove out and scale up a new node, it is extremely to have one massive, anchor customer who will promise well in advance to offtake basically the entire thing for a bit and who has creditworthiness exceeded by few non-sovereign entities, and thus is able to write contracts against which it is easy to lend. Also this customer makes little chips (when your defect rate is higher) and bigger chips (when your defect rate is lower). Of course you don't try to synthesize this profile out of a bajillion tiny customers.

knowitnone3today at 4:23 PM

so if you win an ebay auction, did you shove "lesser people" out of the way?