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Comment by melonpan7 | Hacker News Reader

The author doesn’t seem to understand that Apple places RAM orders years in advance. I’m not sure if it’s even feasible or possible for Apple to fully integrate their supply chain and open up memory fabs, the cost of entry must be enormous.

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And by "places orders" we mean "helps TSMC acquire plots of land on which their next facilities will be constructed" kind of level of scope, timing, and commitment.

TSMC doesn't make RAM do they?

Fair, and I meant it as illustrative of partner depth generally rather than as a specific example around RAM.

No, but they can and so can Apple if it becomes critical, I don’t know what is more critical to Apple than replacing Intel, Qualcomm, or Nvidia, but memory probably is number four on the list which means it probably is something that will be addressed?

Yes I believe that’s what being a manufacturer partner entails

In my experience, the corporate-speak "partnering with" can mean almost anything.

Apple gives TSMC a billion dollars to build a cutting edge fab dedicated to making Apple's chips, a deal they repeat several times over more than a decade? Partnership.

Youtuber takes $300 to read an ad, giving viewers a 10% discount code? Also a partnership.

There's partnering with Apple for several decades where they plan years in advance and pay billions without fail, and there's partnering with OpenAI where Sam Altman commits to giving you a Trillion dollars provided you can deliver all that ram up front and he can give you an IOU he got from Oracle who got it from Nvidia who got it from OpenAI. These are different things.

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