Live data from Hacker News

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

apple.com

211–220 of 247 posts

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

#211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any company should definitely be planning for the inevitable decline or elimination of China as a production and/or trading partner. If not caused by politics, then by demographic crash.

That's already happening for the big players, or at least Apple anyway. A big chunk of iPhones are now made in India, Airpods, iPads, macbook assembly is now largely happening in Vietnam and Thailand. Granted, I don't think continuing to shift to places with slave wages is a good thing overall, but we need complete factory automation to solve that problem (the problem of wanting cheap goods AND ethical labor). But th…

India wants to fine Apple $35-38 billion dollars they won’t last.

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

#212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Small note of clarification. HF in a radio frequency (RF) context actually refers to what we would now consider fairly low frequencies between 3 and 30mhz where wavelengths are in the tens of meters. The black magic is mostly in UHF AND microwave regions where wavelengths start to measure closer to the size of circuit elements. Although I have also heard it said “RF physics is black magic” to cover all the bases

Yes, radio found out naming is hard before software did, in very old times there was High Frequency (HF), but then circuits got fast enough to go higher, oops, ok no problem, let's call the new frequencies Very High Frequency (VHF) whew that was close, but wait they got even faster! Ugh! Ok let's call the new frequencies Ultra High Frequency (UHF), but wait, we're still not in the Ghz range yet! Thankfully they did n…

Television resolutions appear to be on the same naming path.

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

#213
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're conflating better for apple (and shareholders) with better for the country overall.

The US economy has been one of the best performing economies ever, which has been great for the country overall. Deeper economic ties with other super powers is also a pretty good at keeping the peace. While there are some specific issues, it's hard to argue it hasn't been good for the country overall.

Not with Trump in power, most of our allies are looking for other places to do business.

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

#214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Probably not much. The US doesn’t have the capacity for high volume manufacturing. We cost too much.

It can be done. It just takes time. But most of America and Wall Street think in the short term every time. (not all but most).

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

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Small note of clarification. HF in a radio frequency (RF) context actually refers to what we would now consider fairly low frequencies between 3 and 30mhz where wavelengths are in the tens of meters. The black magic is mostly in UHF AND microwave regions where wavelengths start to measure closer to the size of circuit elements. Although I have also heard it said “RF physics is black magic” to cover all the bases

Yes, radio found out naming is hard before software did, in very old times there was High Frequency (HF), but then circuits got fast enough to go higher, oops, ok no problem, let's call the new frequencies Very High Frequency (VHF) whew that was close, but wait they got even faster! Ugh! Ok let's call the new frequencies Ultra High Frequency (UHF), but wait, we're still not in the Ghz range yet! Thankfully they did n…

3–30 Hz Extremely low frequency

30–300 Hz Super low frequency

300–3000 Hz Ultra low frequency

3–30 kHz Very low frequency

30–300 kHz Low frequency

300 kHz – 3 MHz Medium frequency

3–30 MHz High frequency

30–300 MHz Very high frequency

300 MHz – 3 GHz Ultra high frequency

3-30 GHz Super high frequency

30–300 GHz Extremely high frequency

300 GHz – 3 THz Tremendously high frequency

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

#216

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?

Well, even Krugman has now acknowledged the need for tariffs: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2026-06-27/why-krugman...

Reminder, Biden, not Trump, introduced the first round of tariffs to protect domestic production.

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

#217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any company should definitely be planning for the inevitable decline or elimination of China as a production and/or trading partner. If not caused by politics, then by demographic crash.

Labour is one part of the equation. China has really well-designed supply chains and economic zones, where getting access to related components just means walking/driving few minutes down the road. They have made huge strides in robotics as well, so the argument for demographic collapse is weak IMHO. > inevitable decline or elimination of China as a production and/or trading partner I don't think this will happen any…

Demographic collapse is a major issue unless agi automates away completely the need for human intellect, drive, and labor on complex tasks. If x% of your population are consumers without producing then that's a net drain on the economy sustained by the 1-x% of the population that is producing. All automation does is lessen the impact of the smaller labor pool

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

#218
post #100

Apple is already purchasing these Broadcom analog components that is made in the US. This isn't exactly new [1] ( Apple announces multibillion-dollar deal with Broadcom for components made in the USA ), and this was in 2023. I am not exactly sure what is the timing of this for. Why now? [1] https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2023/05/apple-announces-multi...

> I am not exactly sure what is the timing of this for. Why now?

It's simply a clever way to satisfy the current administration's ambitions. Nothing had to change, just the semantics.

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

#219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, radio found out naming is hard before software did, in very old times there was High Frequency (HF), but then circuits got fast enough to go higher, oops, ok no problem, let's call the new frequencies Very High Frequency (VHF) whew that was close, but wait they got even faster! Ugh! Ok let's call the new frequencies Ultra High Frequency (UHF), but wait, we're still not in the Ghz range yet! Thankfully they did n…

Television resolutions appear to be on the same naming path.

Oh, they're much worse[1]. Is 4k 3840x2160 or 4096x2160? That's right, it's both! And 4096x2048! And 4096x4096! And about half a dozen other resolutions, many of which have no dimension of 4000 or 4096 pixels.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_display_resolut...

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

#220
post #135
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their aging population will pose an extremely serious problem in the coming decades.

If demographics are a problem for chipmaking in China, then it's good to compare against key chipmaking countries. To compare, 2024 (UN) fertility rates (highest-lowest):[1] US: 1.62 Japan: 1.23 China: 1.02 ROC: 0.86 ROK: 0.75 (where an increase to 0.8 in 2025 was cause for celebration, as is a predicted increase to 0.85 by mid 2026)[2] Alternatively (and perhaps accounting for migration etc), UN 2024 forecasts popul…

Note that the (total) fertility rate normalizes away the population age distribution, and is often misleading. It does not tell you the actual increase/decrease in population. The US age pyramid is slightly more favorable than the Chinese one, and in particular China is about to face huge societal headwinds due to a large number of old people compared to young working age people.
Post reply on HN