Apple dominated the 2026 chip war. Google’s partners are left to buy scraps

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• Apple (AAPL) booked over 50% of TSMC’s 2nm capacity for 2026 A20 and M5 chips and locked in multi-year HBM memory supplies through 2026 with its $123B cash position, while Google and partners compete for residual 3nm wafers and face 80-90% higher spot memory prices. Alphabet (GOOGL) reported 63% Cloud growth but Q1 CapEx jumped 107% YoY to $35.67B, with management targeting $180B in 2026 CapEx that will pressure free cash flow.

• Apple’s control over advanced silicon and memory secures its margin advantage for the next decade of XR devices, while Google’s open-platform approach and massive capital spending chase scale but sacrifice capital efficiency.

• The analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 stocks and Apple wasn’t one of them. Get them here FREE.

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) both just reported, and the contrast runs deeper than the headline numbers suggest. Apple posted its best March quarter ever. Alphabet…