Anyone want to take a guess at how long it will be until Apple has their own fab in the US making M1 chips?
Because Apple has a lot of capital and they wouldn’t need to compete as hard for their share of tsmc production capacity.
They are by far the biggest customer and have a multi-faceted relationship e.g. OLEDs, Modems.
What do you mean by this? Apple does very little manufacturing, they're famous for it.
Only in that they design it, not in that they build it.
In that area they have "vertically integrated" nothing.
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?
Apple would be insane to get into the middle of it.
And they dominate the competition in performance/power.
China is engaging in ever more aggressive saber rattling and the total lack of any measurable reaction to their takeover of Hong Kong only has emboldened them. Who can guarantee Taiwan won't end up the same fate?
Taiwan is completely self-governed at the moment and sees itself as an independent nation.
Even then, do Apple use enough chips to justify running a fab, let alone one that would be locked into the node of the time. I really don't see it happening for many reasons and the only reason they would - would be some tax break incentive to onshore some of the money they have offshore in that it pays for itself, win or fail.
I don't think that's relevant anymore. My understanding is that the 2017 TCJA required prior unrepatriated earnings to be recognized and taxed over eight years (so still ongoing) and future foreign earnings not subject to US tax (except if the foreign tax is below the corporate alternative minimum tax rate). As a result of those changes, there's no need to hold cash offshore.