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Apple Just Backed U.S. Chip Capacity — But The Tech Lead Still Lives In Taiwan

Apple is quietly doing something big in the desert. It is using its wallet to pull more of its chip supply chain onto U.S. soil. The Feb. 23, 2026 Wall Street Journal report described rare access to the supplier sites. The headline project is TSMC’s Arizona mega-campus. Apple plans to buy more than 100 million chips from that site this year. Apple executives also pointed to U.S. work on wafers in Texas, packaging in Arizona, and server assembly in Houston. This push sits next to a noisy backdrop. Tariffs still matter. Taiwan risk still matters. And politics now cares about “where chips come from.” Apple’s recent earnings call added extra color. Management highlighted a $600 billion U.S. investment pledge over four years. It also flagged tight capacity at advanced chip nodes. So yes, the U.S. buildout is real. But it is also partial, slow, and still years behind Taiwan.