That's exactly how it is supposed to work and Apple has outspent competitors for ages getting prio.

TSMC isn't running a charity, it sells capacity to the highest bidder.

Of course customers as big as Apple will have a relationship and insane volumes that they will be guaranteed important quotes regardless.

▲

michaelt 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Why should it be short term, though?

If it takes 4 years to build a new fab and Apple is willing to commit to paying pay the price of an entire fab, for chips to be delivered in 4 years time - why not take the order and build the capacity?

	▲	epolanski 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I mean, these things are likely already written down and Apple still gets lots of capacity for the reasons you mention. But Nvidia has also spent billions/year in TSMC for more than a decade and this just keeps increasing.