Exactly — this is CHIPS Act logic, not tariff logic. But the uncomfortable reality is that even with massive subsidies, reshoring mid-node RF components is very different from leading-edge fabs. Broadcom's FBAR filters are important but they're not the bottleneck. The real choke point remains leading-edge lithography equipment and the talent pipeline. Having watched Asia's semiconductor ecosystem up close, the US can throw money at fabs but replicating the dense supplier networks around Hsinchu or Suzhou takes decades, not election cycles. Apple's announcement is smart PR, but it's incremental capacity, not a structural shift.
This matches the Chinese experience perfectly. In cities like Shenzhen or Shanghai, you have incredibly dense retail within walking distance, yet JD.com and Pinduoduo still dominate because the logistics infrastructure is just that good — same-day or next-morning delivery is the norm, not the exception. The Costco vs Amazon framing assumes a choice between warehouse efficiency and delivery convenience, but Chinese e-commerce collapsed that distinction years ago. Pinduoduo's model — group buying with farm-to-door supply chains — achieves Costco-like bulk economics through demand aggregation rather than physical warehouses. The real question is whether American suburbs will ever have enough population density to make that model work there.