[oxqbldpxo]

All these companies depend on TSMC for their life.

[sho_hn]

And TSMC depends on machines by ASML they can also sell to others.

And ASML licensed the technology from EUV LLC.

Which was a conglomerate of a bunch of state-funded US research labs.

And the US cut its science funding.

Misery all the way down!

[throw0101a]

> And ASML licensed the technology from EUV LLC.

And glass/mirrors from Zeiss, amongst a whole bunch others:

> ASML employs more than 42,000 people[1] from 143 nationalities and relies on a network of nearly 5,000 tier 1 suppliers.[6]

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASML_Holding

* https://www.robotsops.com/complete-list-of-all-suppliers-and...

Let's also not forget the the two most prominent chip design software companies, Cadence and Synopsys, are American:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_EDA_companies

There are all sorts of inter-dependencies between companies and countries: welcome to globalization.

[yieldcrv]

It’s a conglomerate of researchers that were employed by the feds and private institutions who met have received various forms of grants

I think the science funding cuts will be inconsequential to that entity

[seizethecheese]

If true, TSMC would command much higher margins. Their net revenue is a fraction of Nvidia or Apple

[trenchpilgrim]

TSMC's business is much higher risk, each improvement to manufacturing process is a massive investment that's never a guaranteed success.

[tyre]

TSMC is famous for not taking margin when they could. It’s part of their strategy.

[jayd16]

I mean... do they? TSMC is the best but in a world where they had to use Samsung or Intel is it really a death sentence?

[tomcam]

My intuition is that we would adapt just fine. Maybe we'd have to drop to assembly more often, read the chip docs closely, etc. Unheard-of performance benefits are still being found from Commodore 64s and first-gen IBM PCs, for crying out loud. What if we wrung every last cycle out of the Samsung or Intel chips?

[nomilk]

Had to look up what TSMC meant (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company).

What would Apple's next best option be if a war rendered TSMC unavailable?

[madeofpalk]

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/02/apple-will-spend-more...

> The fund’s expansion includes a multibillion-dollar commitment from Apple to produce advanced silicon in TSMC’s Fab 21 facility in Arizona. Apple is the largest customer at this state-of-the-art facility, which employs more than 2,000 workers to manufacture the chips in the United States. Mass production of Apple chips began last month.

[martinald]

There's an amazing book on Apple in China all about this issue (and more). It's a great read and I'd highly recommend if you're interested.

Also Chip Wars is really good. I may be confusing which one is which because I read them back to back, but they overlap!

[colechristensen]

>What would Apple's next best option be if a war rendered TSMC unavailable?

Onshore TSMC fabs followed by Intel fabs.

Properly motivated, I think Intel and Apple could do a lot relatively quickly.

[45764986]

If a war rendered TSMC unavailable it would crash the global economy. There is no next best option.