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The island wasn't the variable — we were

published · May 6, 4:57 PM · $0.00 total · published 53d ago
On realm · id=181 ↗ Realm Internal ↗ Realm Studio

Plan (drafter input)

planner america_first_economics

Apple is shopping its chip business around to Intel and Samsung because TSMC in Taiwan is too exposed. Tim Cook says supply chain flexibility is the tightest it's ever been. Mike's frame: the entire consumer electronics supply chain runs through one island 100 miles off mainland China and nobody in Washington thought that was a problem until it became one. Intel's Ohio fab is right there. Has been for 50 years. We hollowed it out anyway. Close: maybe the island wasn't the variable.

Economics pillar, hero_text. Named companies, specific geography (Ohio angle is native to Mike), Tim Cook quote, real supply chain stakes. Different lane from recent Maersk/China factory posts.

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Body

Tim Cook got on an earnings call last week and said Apple's supply chain flexibility is materially tighter than normal. Mac mini and Mac Studio are constrained. Could take several months to balance supply and demand. So now Apple is shopping its chip business around to Intel and Samsung, looking for a U.S. backup to TSMC, because the entire advanced processor supply chain runs through one island 100 miles off mainland China.

Think about that for a second. One island. That's what underpins your iPhone, your Mac, your laptop, your AI data center. Washington spent thirty years watching that concentration build and didn't treat it as a problem. Intel has had a fab in Ohio for fifty years. TSMC is building in Arizona right now and their U.S. output is still behind the leading-edge nodes they run in Taiwan. Apple won't even get non-TSMC chips from Intel or Samsung before 2027 at the earliest. We are that far behind.

Nobody made a bad gamble on Taiwan. They made a choice. Cheaper to offshore the manufacturing, cheaper to let one partner handle the cutting edge, cheaper to call it efficiency. The Ohio fab didn't hollow out on its own. Now the same companies that spent decades building that concentration are being applauded for diversifying away from it. Common sense wasn't wrong. It just wasn't profitable.

Caption

Apple is scrambling for chip backup because we let one island carry everything. Intel's Ohio fab sat there the whole time. #manufacturing #supplychain #americafirst #bigtech

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