The equipment and facilities required for cutting edge fabs are very expensive.
However, it isn't as clear if the same applies to semiconductors, since even a bit of dust is indeed a serious problem for producing a chip where the transistors are much smaller than most dust. Until very recently there were no blank checks, every improvement required mostly private investment, so it's less likely that the inefficiencies are intentional.
Who in their right mind would invest $10b just to build the manufacturing capability without having a well established product? And if you have a well established product are you still a startup?
I have a friend who lives in Ohio who was very excited about this, and I told him not to hold his breathe, its likely they will do everything they can to get subsidies to pay for it, rather than pay for the majority of it out of their own pocket and re-coup some via subsidy, therefore I suspect they will delay opening until they get more subsidies.
It looks like I was right, unfortunately
Which startups would be harmed by this type of investment? as a relatively casual observer, I didn't think there was much in way of startups that were looking to go head-to-head with a company like Intel or AMD in chip fabrication.
Sure, maybe they don't actually make any buybacks. This is what's left from $110.0 billion they approved for stock buybacks in the past, not a quantity that's been approved or seemingly needs to be used this year. They haven't bought back any stock since 2021 [1].
One just wishes they'd invested in fab-building earlier. They've spent $152.05 billion in buybacks since 1990 [1], a fab apparently costs anywhere from $3-20 billion [2]. That's say ~10 potential fabs that instead became just checks for investors.
[1]: https://www.intc.com/stock-info/dividends-and-buybacks
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiconductor_fabrication_plan...
I don't think we'll ever have a perfect system, unfortunately. Just makes it that much harder for startups.
Almost all of Intel's fabs are in America.
https://bdsmovement.net/Press-Release-BDS-Launches-Boycott-I...
Intel has had the resources to build out fabs in the US for decades. Instead, they've chosen to build elsewhere, and now they're rewarded for it?
They recently announced their $20b facility in Ohio is being "put on hold":
https://www.tweaktown.com/news/96969/intel-delays-launch-of-...
While at nearly the same time announcing a $25b facility in Israel:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/26/tech/intel-israel-investment/...