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Intel doesn't know how to be a foundry," Tim Cook reportedly told TSMC's CEO

Intel could have landed Apple as a foundry customer, but it did not.

Unlike TSMC, which tailors its process technologies to meet customer needs, Intel was used to designing and producing its own chips and struggled to adapt to servicing external clients. The Apple Silicon strategy cemented TSMC's position as the exclusive supplier, as the company's system-on-chips for different applications share quite a lot of IP. Apple's business gave TSMC predictable high-volume orders, helping justify massive CapEx and R&D investments.

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