[eric-hu]

Re: fabs, Apple did by way of TSMC. Apple provided TSMC with massive amounts of cash in the 2010’s to fund new fabs. These were loans, but with very generous low interest terms that TSMC couldn’t have gotten elsewhere.

I think you’re correct that this was initially because Apple didn’t want to be at the behest of Samsung. But as Apple iterated on their mobile and tablet chips, they had the choice to bring them to their desktop and laptop lines or not to. They took that gamble and here we are today with non Intel Macs.