I don't know where you live or what you mean by "here", but there is a reason no new chip fab is going to be built in California but they are building them in Arizona. The US has a federal system where states have a lot of control over things like environmental regulations, water usage, etc.

Western Europe, where fabs "can't happen". Nobody is complaining about the existing fabs, they really are not worse than other industry, and they get the high-tech/future bonus. No "millions of sanctimonious kids with nothing more meaningful in their lives than marching with signs" as you like to call them against that.

I am not saying that fabs can't happen because of something in Europeans' DNA. I am saying they can't happen because of the current political climate. Thus we are talking about obstacles to building new fabs in this thread. Existing fabs are a sunk cost -- the environmental approvals have already been granted, the political battles already waged, etc. In terms of existing fabs, there is a single modern fab in Crolles, France and a few (3?) in Germany. I think that's it for Europe - 4 fabs that can do 300mm. Then you have a bunch of 200mm built in the 80s.

Of course there is Ireland, but that's a fundamentally different situation -- Ireland exists as a type of corporate welcome mat and shouldn't be categorized with "europe" when you are talking about business climate/regulations.