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Apple to increase spend with Broadcom to produce billions more U.S. chips

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31–40 of 247 posts

Re: Apple to increase spend with Broadcom to produce billions more U.S. chips

#31

This seems to be paying lip service to creating a supply chain in the USA. These are not anything like Apple Silicon ARM chips, they are not even Wifi chips?

I figure supply chain migration is an incremental process and any progress is a win. In my mind some of the tech needs genuinely experienced staff and that must be seeded somehow.

Note I am talking out of my ass but this is how I see the picture. I have no experience in supply chain or manufacturing :)

Re: Apple to increase spend with Broadcom to produce billions more U.S. chips

#32

As much as I hate the source of the tariff policies, from an uneducated outsider PoV, they do seem to be causing fewer dollars to leave the country in imports. How does it feel from an insider perspective? Are the increased costs on imported items and dependent services worth it for a bit more local investment?

No company can plan based on the tariffs. There is zero guarantee that then next government won't revoked them or that the current one won't flip-flop. Local manufacturing doesn't swing on a 2-4 (or 6 or 8) year timescale. There needs to be consistency. The company that moves (or starts) manufacturing here today might get run out of business when/if tariffs are repealed and their competitor already has production lin…

That isn't 100% true, maybe 99% though. Anyone paying attention to politics for the last 40 years would have seen that there has always been an undercurrent of people unhappy with imports. This is the most power those people have had, but they have always been there and got significant political attention. There have thus been signs to be aware of, and those signs are things a smart company will take into consideration - they may or may not act, but they should know and consider them.

Re: Apple to increase spend with Broadcom to produce billions more U.S. chips

#33

As much as I hate the source of the tariff policies, from an uneducated outsider PoV, they do seem to be causing fewer dollars to leave the country in imports. How does it feel from an insider perspective? Are the increased costs on imported items and dependent services worth it for a bit more local investment?

No company can plan based on the tariffs. There is zero guarantee that then next government won't revoked them or that the current one won't flip-flop. Local manufacturing doesn't swing on a 2-4 (or 6 or 8) year timescale. There needs to be consistency. The company that moves (or starts) manufacturing here today might get run out of business when/if tariffs are repealed and their competitor already has production lin…

Apple invested 3x the Marshall Plan into China. Imagine if they'd spent that on the US instead.

Re: Apple to increase spend with Broadcom to produce billions more U.S. chips

#34

As much as I hate the source of the tariff policies, from an uneducated outsider PoV, they do seem to be causing fewer dollars to leave the country in imports. How does it feel from an insider perspective? Are the increased costs on imported items and dependent services worth it for a bit more local investment?

We are losing a lot more manufacturing due to the new tariffs on industrial parts than we are gaining from tariffs on finished products

Re: Apple to increase spend with Broadcom to produce billions more U.S. chips

#35

As much as I hate the source of the tariff policies, from an uneducated outsider PoV, they do seem to be causing fewer dollars to leave the country in imports. How does it feel from an insider perspective? Are the increased costs on imported items and dependent services worth it for a bit more local investment?

The biggest problem with the tariff policy is not the cost or even the uncertainty, it's the corruption. A single person should not have the power to dictate the terms of trade, because the rational play in such a system is for businesses that rely on trade to pander to that person, and that's corrupt.

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Re: Apple to increase spend with Broadcom to produce billions more U.S. chips

#36

As much as I hate the source of the tariff policies, from an uneducated outsider PoV, they do seem to be causing fewer dollars to leave the country in imports. How does it feel from an insider perspective? Are the increased costs on imported items and dependent services worth it for a bit more local investment?

The biggest problem with the tariff policy is not the cost or even the uncertainty, it's the corruption. A single person should not have the power to dictate the terms of trade, because the rational play in such a system is for businesses that rely on trade to pander to that person, and that's corrupt.

It is useful for the president to have emergency powers. However he should have been impeached for abusing emergency powers in a non-emergency. Same for his invasion of Iran - Iran has been building long enough that he had plenty of time to go to Congress for permission if he thought attacks were needed.

Re: Apple to increase spend with Broadcom to produce billions more U.S. chips

#37

This seems to be paying lip service to creating a supply chain in the USA. These are not anything like Apple Silicon ARM chips, they are not even Wifi chips?

I figure supply chain migration is an incremental process and any progress is a win. In my mind some of the tech needs genuinely experienced staff and that must be seeded somehow. Note I am talking out of my ass but this is how I see the picture. I have no experience in supply chain or manufacturing :)

Not just experienced staff but an entire ecosystem of supporting startups, industry, talent, and infrastructure around the main fabs.

Re: Apple to increase spend with Broadcom to produce billions more U.S. chips

#38

As much as I hate the source of the tariff policies, from an uneducated outsider PoV, they do seem to be causing fewer dollars to leave the country in imports. How does it feel from an insider perspective? Are the increased costs on imported items and dependent services worth it for a bit more local investment?

The tariffs have been highly destructive to local manufacturing because in the US we mostly build complex things made out of simpler parts which we import. The cost of everything we build simply increased and as a result many businesses selling relatively higher margin, higher complexity products had to scale back or shut down. More to the point, the notion that dollars leaving the country is a real problem is really…

> We literally can't lose

Who is "we"? Trade deficit dollars are recycled into assets, which compete with exports in the balance of payments. If you have a big house and fat brokerage account, you win big. If you have a job building shit, you lose big. If you have a job building tradeable shit and a low net worth, may god have mercy on your soul.

If you want the full economist version, "Trade Wars are Class Wars" by Klein and Pettis

Re: Apple to increase spend with Broadcom to produce billions more U.S. chips

#39

As much as I hate the source of the tariff policies, from an uneducated outsider PoV, they do seem to be causing fewer dollars to leave the country in imports. How does it feel from an insider perspective? Are the increased costs on imported items and dependent services worth it for a bit more local investment?

The tariffs have been highly destructive to local manufacturing because in the US we mostly build complex things made out of simpler parts which we import. The cost of everything we build simply increased and as a result many businesses selling relatively higher margin, higher complexity products had to scale back or shut down. More to the point, the notion that dollars leaving the country is a real problem is really…

Also, by definition, if dollars left the country then stuff came in. We literally traded bit flips in a database for tangible stuff.

Re: Apple to increase spend with Broadcom to produce billions more U.S. chips

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No company can plan based on the tariffs. There is zero guarantee that then next government won't revoked them or that the current one won't flip-flop. Local manufacturing doesn't swing on a 2-4 (or 6 or 8) year timescale. There needs to be consistency. The company that moves (or starts) manufacturing here today might get run out of business when/if tariffs are repealed and their competitor already has production lin…

Apple invested 3x the Marshall Plan into China. Imagine if they'd spent that on the US instead.

>Apple invested 3x the Marshall Plan into China.

Apple invested 3x that because they got 30x in return from the savings versus US manufacturing.

>Imagine if they'd spent that on the US instead.

Then iPhones would either have to be 10x more exsolve to keep the same profit margins or Apple would be broke trying to compete with Chinese made goods using US manufacturing.

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