Today, renowned Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo posted on social media platform X, explicitly questioning the claim that "TSMC has a backlog of $1 billion worth of Apple processor work-in-progress due to memory shortages." He pointed out that Apple typically plans TSMC's processor production in advance based on memory supply, rather than instructing TSMC to mass-produce work-in-progress ahead of time, and his investigation found no evidence of a large-scale passive backlog of semi-finished products. Kuo also refuted the inference that TSMC's inventory data is directly linked to Apple's backlog, citing three aspects: TSMC's financial report inventory definition, the diversity of 2nm process customers, and the regular ramp-up of new processes. However, Apple management has confirmed in its official earnings guidance that tight memory supply will lead to "significantly exacerbated" supply constraints in the fourth fiscal quarter, affecting the iPhone, Mac, and iPad product lines, and expects revenue guidance to be a year-over-year increase of 9% to 11%, lower than analysts' expectations of 12.1%.