Overview
- Samsung, whose shares leapt Wednesday, crossed $1 trillion in market value on a rally tied to AI chips and reports that Apple had assessed its Texas plant.
- Apple has held preliminary talks with Intel and sent executives to a Samsung facility in Texas, but it has not placed orders and remains wary of shifting from TSMC’s process technology.
- Intel shares jumped to record highs near $108 after the reports, adding tens of billions of dollars to the company’s market value in a single session.
- CEO Tim Cook said Apple has less flexibility in its supply chain, noting that the tightest bottleneck is at advanced production nodes for its system‑on‑chip processors rather than in memory chips.
- Any shift would be complex because TSMC leads at cutting‑edge nodes such as 3 nanometers, while Intel is building a contract foundry business and a prior U.S. government investment in Intel has surged in value, raising policy stakes.