A report earlier this week indicated that Apple was considering diversifying chip manufacturing away from its current sole reliance on TSMC.
Samsung was one of two companies named as potential future suppliers of Apple’s A- and M-series chips, and this report saw the company’s stock price rise significantly…
Monday Bloomberg The report said that Apple had started preliminary discussions with Intel and Samsung regarding the future production of processors for its devices. We observed that such partnerships are likely to be limited.
At this point, the most likely scenario is that the two companies would only be able to make higher-process chips for older devices in Apple’s product line – similar to the less advanced TSMC equipment installed in Arizona factories. This would certainly be a useful feature for Apple, but it would still leave the company entirely dependent on TSMC for its latest devices.
However, this did not prevent investors from reacting positively, with Bloomberg reporting that Samsung’s stock price rose 14% in response. This saw the company reach a valuation of $1 trillion.
Samsung Electronics Co.’s stock valuation topped $1 trillion after shares of the world’s largest memory maker more than quadrupled over the past year due to growing demand for chips used in artificial intelligence.
The milestone came as shares of the South Korean company rose 14% on Wednesday, making it only the second Asian company after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to achieve the milestone.
We noted at the time that the report raised a potentially worrying possibility for Apple customers: possible quality differences between chips made by TSMC and those made by its competitors.
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