Kuo: Apple's 2024 Hardware Shipments Downgraded Due to Memory Shortage

Ming-Chi Kuo, a veteran Apple (AAPL-US) supply chain analyst at TF International Securities, released an industry report on the 11th (Tuesday) indicating that Apple’s hardware shipment volume for this year has indeed been downgraded due to memory shortages. However, Apple’s processor orders with TSMC (2330-TW)(TSM-US) are planned based on available memory quantities at least approximately three months in advance, rather than instructing TSMC to pre-produce large volumes of semi-finished products.

Kuo clarified that this does not mean TSMC will not produce or stockpile semi-finished wafers early; however, if the bottleneck lies outside TSMC, such early production offers little practical benefit. Therefore, Apple has no strong incentive to pay extra costs to request TSMC to do so.

"Memory supply tightness is real, but in my understanding, there hasn’t been a dramatic shift like 'TSMC stockpiling $1 billion worth of semi-finished products and waiting endlessly for memory chips to arrive.' Both TSMC and Apple are globally top-tier in execution capability. With close collaboration in supply chain management, such dramatic developments are unlikely to occur," Kuo stated.