Comment by lotsofpulp
Comment by lotsofpulp 13 hours ago
This monopoly is unavoidable due to the limited number of people in the world with the know-how to make these products, with the second constraint being that you need to risk $10B+ and 10+ years with a risk that you fail.
Edit: per link below, seems like you need $100B+ and 10+ years
For reference, TSMC's yearly capital investment budget is about $50B/year (https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2025/03/07/200...)
This business is expensive, making and running fabs is way way more expensive than most anybody thinks. There are very few companies able to do it profitably.