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A comment on TSMC to begin 3nm chip production next month. Parent comment

Re:TSMC to begin 3nm chip production next month by eldaisfish on Thursday August 18, 2022 @11:39AM (#32511145)
if one were to make the argument of exclusivity, TSMC is the right example, not apple. As much as i dislike apple's practices, they are paying what they can afford.

If other fabs were available, apple's ability to pay up would not be leading to accusations of anti-competitive behaviour.

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Re:TSMC to begin 3nm chip production next month by ohgodplsno on Thursday August 18, 2022 @12:01PM (#32511419)
>If other fabs were available, apple's ability to pay up would not be leading to accusations of anti-competitive behaviour.

If I ignore reality and make up non-existent fabs, the extremely monopolistic, anti-competitive behaviour is not a problem!

>they are paying what they can afford.

The problem is not paying what they can afford, it's paying that in addition to forbidding TSMC from increasing their capacity on that node while the contract is ongoing. It's both paying what they can afford, and paying so that others can't afford it.

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Re:TSMC to begin 3nm chip production next month by hnaccount_rng on Thursday August 18, 2022 @04:57PM (#32514790)
Do they forbid adding capacity? I thought they basically finance the capacity in trade for the right to do first bid on any capacity for a certain timeframe. And they have the margins to just pay more than any competitor. AND they are also supply constraint. Ie it’s not that they buy stuff and then _not_ use it (on the contrary they are well known for carrying nearly no inventory)

If some other company is willing (or really: able) to make a competing offer, I’m not aware of TSMC not being interested in that. It just happens that the number of companies with the margins to spend what probably amounts to the GDP of a small nation is approximately zero (or one if you count Apple)

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Re:TSMC to begin 3nm chip production next month by locutous on Thursday August 18, 2022 @08:40PM (#32516509)
> The problem is not paying what they can afford, it's paying that in addition to forbidding TSMC from increasing their capacity on that node while the contract is ongoing. It's both paying what they can afford, and paying so that others can't afford it.

Except they didn't have exclusive access? Huawei also bought 5nm. Intel contracted 3nm along with apple before backing out.

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Re:TSMC to begin 3nm chip production next month by 988747 on Thursday August 18, 2022 @04:53PM (#32514752)
>> it's paying that in addition to forbidding TSMC from increasing their capacity on that node while the contract is ongoing

Is there any proof that this is actually true? TSMC is currently building few new factories, I suppose they will produce 3nm chip in them.

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Re:TSMC to begin 3nm chip production next month by ksec on Friday August 19, 2022 @10:36AM (#32521499)
>The problem is not paying what they can afford, it's paying that in addition to forbidding TSMC from increasing their capacity on that node while the contract is ongoing.

I am sorry but that is simply not true. Sigh.

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