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Re:Apple Bought $578M Worth of Sapphire by IBM on Friday November 08, 2013 @07:39PM (#6700095)
Like the article says, the $578M is just the prepayment. The total amount may be much greater. The facility itself was acquired from First Solar, who sold it at a loss, and it seems like Apple will be fronting the capital for the factory's construction. The deal also requires a minimum amount of capacity for Apple and also exclusivity for some unknown amount of time (perhaps the same 5 years), so it's unlikely that they'll be supplying anyone besides Apple. And this is just for one component, Apple likely makes these deals with all their suppliers.

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