How to Build a $20B Semiconductor Fab (2024)

Semiconductor transistors have fallen from $2.50 each in 1954 to $0.000000066 today—a 300 million-fold cost reduction—while fabrication plants have risen from roughly $4 million then to $10-20 billion now, with Intel’s Arizona fabs at $15 billion each and Samsung’s Texas fab at $25 billion. The surge in fab cost follows Moore’s Law and Rock’s Law, as modern chips feature 50-nm structures and atom-thin layers that demand ultra-precise, high-volume manufacturing environments.