Steven Philips on Apple's got plenty of memory chips. What it lacks is access to the best foundries. - 'Daniel Eran Dilger – as best I recall.'
on Apple blows past expectations and its shares fall. What gives? - 'Robert: That’s a good question…I don’t know. But this quarter’s $3.24 billion of net income per week has to go somewhere.'
on Apple blows past expectations and its shares fall. What gives? - 'Roger: Is the diminishing impact on the fully diluted share count from the share repurchase program worth the cash cost of about $100 billion per annum that’s being deployed for this form of financial engineering?'
on A man, a dog, an Apple Watch - 'I had a couple of falls in the past couple of years, bad enough that both times my Apple Watch asked whether I need help. Luckily I didn’t both times. But knowing the monitor is working really is priceless. I am mid 70s now and falling is getting more real these days'
on A man, a dog, an Apple Watch - 'Man’s best friend has some competition with the Apple Watch. What a scary situation and glad it turned out well for you and Ginger. A life can change in an instant. Thanks for sharing.'
on Apple's got plenty of memory chips. What it lacks is access to the best foundries. - 'Got a reply to my DED inquiry. Dan is still with us! He just writes when he sees fit. Thanks for checking in on him, I’ll pass along that you were looking for him.'
on Apple's got plenty of memory chips. What it lacks is access to the best foundries. - 'Hi David, A partial answer, below: While TSMC handles all of Apple’s most advanced process, other foundries make other chips. As well there are 3rd parties, Intel, Samsung and others that handle advanced packaging, for the various multi-chip products. There’s a lot more to this… above my pay grade.'
on Apple's got plenty of memory chips. What it lacks is access to the best foundries. - 'One more thought: What are those “best foundries” (plural!) that Apple has no access to??? Apple has a long-standing deep relationship with TSMC, even if it has been eclipsed as TSMC’s biggest customer. What other foundry has both the technical capabilities as TSMC, and the scale as TSMC, to produce chips for a significant number of commercial products on a demanding schedule?'
on Apple blows past expectations and its shares fall. What gives? - 'Apple is also a far more secure customer for memory-makers and sellers than all of the “AI” mega-chasers, from a risk perspective. Apple’s demand and need for high-end chips will be higher in 1 year, 2 years, 3 years than it is today, because the iPhone is the primary medium by which most of its customers will interact with information and tech. Compare that to the LLM-peddlers and the fact that that entire industry is headed for a significant shake-out if they don’t demonstrate a viable financial model very quickly. So if I’m Nvidia or Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron or Kioxia, I look at demand, highlight that Apple is still one of if not the biggest customer, and then put it in a special category of its own entitled, “Keep This Customer Happy and Business Grows”, and everyone else in the “Manage The Response To This Extreme Short-Term Demand Very Carefully!!” pot. Predictability and risk associated with individual customers have to be major factors in the decisions on the allocation of capex for building significant new fab capacity, and also for who gets their order satisfied in a world of limited supply. And in those two categories, it looks to me like Apple’s #1. If there’s an AI datacenter bubble burst, it could very well quickly turn new chip factories operating at max output into stranded assets and big write-downs.'
on Apple blows past expectations and its shares fall. What gives? - 'Don’t be too worried about the lack of a big bounce post earnings everyone. Apple is fairly richly valued here from a price to earnings growth perspective (a higher PEG than its peers) – so I see the great earnings beat as supporting the current price, rather than being a catalyst for a big move upward.'
on Apple's got plenty of memory chips. What it lacks is access to the best foundries. - 'DESIGN or chip MANUFACTURING? Tesla has been designing their own chips for years now. The plan is to manufacturing them with the goal of 1 million wafers per month. Coming out of Musk’s mouth you never know what’s real or not. But this is one goal I hope becomes a reality Disclosure- I do not own nor plan to buy any Tesla stock.'
