I was thinking of an HN submission or comment a while ago that described how Arizona did this, I found this which appears to agree: https://sustainablewater.com/water-and-fabs-in-arizona/

> Arizona has [some non-water requirements for Semi fab location]; however, it faces water challenges. Semiconductor fabs require tremendous quantities of highly pure water, using between two and four million gallons daily.[1] The fact that Arizona has become a semiconductor fab given these high water requirements may seem bewildering.

> ... Although these companies use vast amounts of water, they also recycle aggressively

It was greenwashing if I remember correctly. They had to do ‘water credits’ to improve watersheds elsewhere in AZ, which they used to claim they were doing good things in the area they were in. When really, they weren’t.

Oh damn, so something like the carbon credits thing Tesla did? In that case what on earth are they doing putting such a facility in such a water-poor locale.

Cheap labor already familiar with chip manufacturing, cheap land, good tax treatment, and tax credits from the gov’t if I remember correctly.