It makes a lot of strategic sense but if you have so much money on the bank, then who wouldn't buy a silicon design firm to design your CPUs in house? I bet everyone here on HN would have suggested to do that if asked in a board meeting. The big surprise was how long it took Apple to bite the bullet.
Anyway, despite this, Apple still has their castle built in someone else's kingdom, namely TSMC.
From a CEO pov this move makes no sense, as evidenced by the fact that literally no on else does it.
It goes against all MBA orthodoxy.
Nothing wrong with being fabless. Plus Apple could switch to inferior silicon and probably convince its userbase that they are the creme de la creme.
> Nothing wrong with being fabless.
Sure, if you're able to buy all the required production slots, as Apple has been doing in the past.
However, with new market pressure from AI this might not be possible in the future ...
What company has the money to outbid Apple for production slots?
See C1 for an example.