And how is that different than what is happening now?

https://www.intc.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/1716/...

> Third-quarter GAAP earnings (loss) per share (EPS) attributable to Intel was $(3.88); non-GAAP EPS attributable to Intel was $(0.46).

Yeah, like they've done to TSMC over the past decade. (/s)

If Intel Foundry starting in 2011 had a non-trivial external customer base, Intel management would not have been so easily able to ignore the signs of trouble with their 10nm process and remain in denial. Their wake-up call would have been Apple jumping ship after a year or so, instead of Intel wasting several years re-releasing Skylake without even considering porting their newer CPU architecture to be built on the process that actually worked.

The first 10nm chip Intel actually got out the door (in tiny quantities) had the entire GPU disabled because their high-density transistor library was broken. That's exactly what Apple would have been using for most or all of an Intel-fabbed iPad chip, so Intel would have not been able to maintain the fiction that their 10nm process was mostly or even somewhat healthy.