Apple Repurposes Defective Chips for Profit

Apple in France repurposes its defective chips into commercially successful products. The company integrates chips initially intended for devices like the iPhone 16 Pro into lower-end computers such as the MacBook Neo.

Apple sorts and sets aside chips with variable quality, then reassigns them to devices where imperfections are less critical. For example, the MacBook Neo uses an A18 Pro chip originally made for the iPhone 16 Pro, disabling a faulty GPU core to reduce it from a 6-core to a 5-core processor.

This strategy allows Apple to reduce production costs and maintain strong profit margins, as seen with the 699 euro MacBook Neo. However, Apple faces a future limitation. The supply of defective chips is not endless.

Apple may need to adjust its approach as current stocks dwindle, potentially moving away from affordable consumer models. The company continues to explore options for sustaining this practice.