My partner designed chips (for printers..) It takes a lot of money to design and fab a chip (her company was fabless). They synopsys or Magma software they used for design/layout was crazy expensive. (if you can't find a price....)

https://www.synopsys.com

Then you have to manufacture. There is a significant cost for custom chips. Though once you get going the per chip cost is pretty low, thus the business lends itself to a few large players.