Mainly because Apple's custom silicon could not even be prototyped in a small scale facility. It'd likely be in Taiwan.
> But there are multiple reports, some from Apple employees, that refer to it as a being some sort of small scale, "skunkworks" silicon fab.
I apologize if I missed them. Please highlight. Curious of the credentials of the folks reporting such a thing, as well.
For sampling new nodes and producing the bulk of their chips, sure. But anything that's not tied to ASML doesn't inherently need to take place in Taiwan. TSMC is in a hugely advantaged position with IP and scalability, but I think it's feasible that Apple could test new lithography techniques or large-scale dies in any sort of environment they choose. Nobody is necessarily implying that they're prototyping low-yield iPhone hardware there.
This is clearly not a factory.
And Bloomberg reported in 2018 that's where they've been prototyping their microLED display screens.
https://www.siliconvalley.com/2018/03/19/apple-secretly-deve... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-19/apple-is-...