TSMC would have envisaged a further increase to price of the chips which Apple would have opposed. The indiscretion comes fromEconomic Daily NewsChinese newspaper that tells how Apple would have answered spades to another increase that TSMC would have budgeted for 2023. Apple first commissioned the production of its chips for the iPhone to both TSMC and Samsung, but for several years the former has obtained all the orders from Apple, which in the meantime, thanks to the chips for Macs have gone up.
In Cupertino, therefore, they totally depend on the TSMC foundries, but Apple is not any company, evidently recognizes large earnings to suppliers and certainly is a guarantee that no one will ever remain idle, so in a sense it can also afford strong stances without major fears . Moreover it is said that approximately 25% of TSMC’s global revenue comes from Apple’s orders.
The energy crisis does not look anyone in the face, the semiconductor crisis is not over, inflation gallops and brings with it winds of recession. The pandemic also darkens the horizon, which in China and Asia almost always suddenly closes the production plants, elements that together create uncertainties and erode earnings.
That’s why TSMC would have asked Apple to come back and sit around a table to discuss a chip contribution between 6 and 9% higher depending on the production process, but Apple does not seem to want to hear about increases after those of 2021 which, moreover, must have contributed to the rise in prices of the iPhone 14. It is necessary to see how the story will end, if it will leave any aftermath: Apple and TSMC can’t do without each other.
