Apple is scaling back its hardware shipment plans in 2026 due to DRAM shortages, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says in an X post.
The tech giant plans its processor production at TSMC, a manufacturing partner, at least three months in advance, based on the amount of memory expected to be available, rather than having TSMC build large amounts of WIP (work in progress) ahead of time. This doesn’t mean TSMC never builds WIP in advance and holds it in inventory. But if the bottleneck is not at TSMC, building ahead provides little benefit, so Apple would have little reason to pay TSMC extra for it, according to Kuo.
In other words, tight memory supply is real. But the analyst says his understanding is that there has been no dramatic scenario in which TSMC first built up US$1 billion of WIP and then had to wait for memory to arrive before packaging could proceed. From his report: TSMC and Apple are both known for world-class execution, and such a dramatic development would be unusual given how closely the two companies coordinate their supply chains.
Finally, public information alone offers a useful way to assess this claim. TSMC said on its 2Q26 earnings call that the increase in inventory days was mainly due to the 2nm production ramp. However, that inventory cannot be directly attributed to Apple processor WIP for three reasons:
1. TSMC’s inventory days typically increase when a new advanced node enters its initial production ramp, so this is not unique to this year.
2. TSMC’s definition of inventory includes not only work-in-process, but also finished goods, raw materials, supplies, and spare parts.
3. Apple is not TSMC’s only 2nm customer this year. Other chip designers, including AMD and MediaTek, are also using 2nm.
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Article provided with permission from AppleWorld.Today
