• DevDave@piefed.social
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    2 days ago

    I am willing to bet $10 that Apple is going to be the only one of the FANG gang that survives this mostly unscathed. Apple is at the end of the day a hardware company and when everything goes to shit, they’re going to be able extract some brutal concessions from TSMC and Samsung. Yes Apple has thrown more than a few billion in, but they still have their ocean of cash largely untapped.

    The way things are going with Nvidia and AMD abandoning their partners and Intel continuing to flop around without any semblance of a plan; Apple is going to be in an amazing position strategically.

    Meanwhile Micron, Samsung, TSMC, and the other big fab I keep forgetting the name of are going to have these massive holes in their spreadsheets as “guaranteed” orders evaporate. Very likely going to be more than a few suicides with those unfortunates who didn’t tap out before the music stopped.

    • jqubed@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      Yeah, I see a lot of criticism of Apple for not going all-in on AI but I think when the bubble bursts their strategy will look very smart. They’ll also be in a position to buy assets at fire sale prices as the dust settles.

      • DevDave@piefed.social
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        18 hours ago

        It felt like Apple almost accidentally burst the bubble a few months (or was it a year?) ago when Apple stated their intent to just lease or license one of the leading models. I am not an economist but it definitely looks like they are following the same strategy as Berkshire Hathaway with Apple’s board planning to buy on the “dip” everyone outside is seeing as inevitable.

        Strategically it would make sense for Apple if they not only extracted steep concessions also gouged out more control over Samsung and Apple’s fabs.