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Re:TSMC confirms 3nm tech for 2022, could enable epic 80B tr... by mrtksn on Wednesday December 02, 2020 @12:40PM (#25278928)
Wow, 116 billion $ investment. Where this goes? High salaries? Expensive minerals? What makes it as expensive as small country's GDP?
Re:TSMC confirms 3nm tech for 2022, could enable epic 80B tr... by tooltalk on Wednesday December 02, 2020 @01:03PM (#25279233)
That's over 10 years, or just over $10B in CAPEX and R&D per year. That sounds a lot, but the company routinely spends $20B-$30B in CAPEX every year. In comparison, Samsung's annual marketing budget (advertising, sales promotion and incentive) easily exceeds that amount.

That being said, Samsung really wants to go beyond memory chips and is serious about the foundry business.

Re:TSMC confirms 3nm tech for 2022, could enable epic 80B tr... by bitdizzy on Wednesday December 02, 2020 @12:51PM (#25279075)
State of the art chip fabs require some of the most advanced technology we've developed, the purest materials we can produce, and the most stringent environments we can maintain.
Re:TSMC confirms 3nm tech for 2022, could enable epic 80B tr... by stjohnswarts on Thursday December 03, 2020 @02:10AM (#25286372)
Exactly. Fabs have air quality restrictions that make surgical rooms look like trash dumpsters, relatively, as far as cleanliness goes.
Re:TSMC confirms 3nm tech for 2022, could enable epic 80B tr... by StillBored on Wednesday December 02, 2020 @02:40PM (#25280561)
EUV patterning, of which TSMC bit the bullet on early, adds another huge cost to an already crazy expensive manufacturing process.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EUVL