[spokeshave]

The problem is that these plants take from three–five years to build, and the scale needed is enormous.

Not only that....

The chip factory makes chips on silicon wafers.

So the raw materials are 12inch diameter silicon wafers...cut from a silicon ingot 12 inch diameter silicon crystal of precise crystallographic orientation

Then you have to slice it into thin discs with a continuous wire looped 10 times around the ingot to get 10 slices at a time.

Then all the automated cutting, packaging, gluing and lead-frame connections to make the final chip and the testing of the final product.

Lot of specialized technology only found in Asia.

[blam]

"So the raw materials are 12inch diameter silicon wafers...cut from a silicon ingot 12 inch diameter silicon crystal of precise crystallographic orientation"

When I started making chips at the start up of National Semiconductor in 1967 in Santa Clara, Cal, the wafers were bigger than quarters but smaller than half-dollars. Most of my career was spent on 2" and 4" wafers.

I think a state-of-the-art chip factory today would cost somewhere between $15-25 billion. I chuckled when I saw the headline that said De Santis was investing $10 million to help with the chip-shortage. $10 million may buy one piece of equipment in a chip factory.