This project isn’t about designing CPUs, so “running a foundry” is irrelevant. They’re working to build a laptop that’ll run an off-the-shelf POWER-based CPU, which is complex but still massively simpler than designing and building the CPUs themselves.
Correction: I meant PowerPC, not POWER. The latter is not likely to fit comfortably in a laptop. If you want a POWER-based workstation, check out the Talos II from Raptor Computing.
Actually the PC suffix has been mostly dropped. See e.g. [1] which is much lower end than what would fit in a laptop.
1: https://www.nxp.com/products/microcontrollers-and-processors...
You're always welcome to design your own chips, then barter for them with pelts.
The result of this project thus far is totally underwhelming and I'd think whoever was donating to it not only didn't need that computer and could wait an indefinite amount of time for one, but is likely throwing their money away and may never get a product.