What is the lead time on a (silicon) chip foundry?

Quartz

Quartz

Quartz

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Raw sand in one end, CPUs, GPUs, RAM, etc out the other end?

Say I'm Bezos. I see that there's a world-wide undercapacity of chip manufacture. I have the billions required to build the plant de novo. So how quickly could I be up and running?
 
I don't know but I just have a vision of you building a machine in the garage where you pour beach sand in one end and a fully formed working 3090 comes out the other with a budget of £50.
 
Quartz said:
Raw sand in one end, CPUs, GPUs, RAM, etc out the other end?

Say I'm Bezos. I see that there's a world-wide undercapacity of chip manufacture. I have the billions required to build the plant de novo. So how quickly could I be up and running?
Click to expand...

Ask Intel, they have billions and can't get a cutting edge process working despite years of effort.
 
Wait a second, your username is Quartz... surely you already know;)
But yes, Minstadave nailed it: as well the billions you also need the knowhow which even with throwing in many extra billions to poach people and buying patents won't be easy.
Plus you need very large scales to make it all viable.
There are very good reasons why over the 2 decades or so, there has only really been new entrant (SMIC in China) but tens of has-been exit'ers.
The modern maxim is, it's not silicon fabbing (rocket engineering being far too easy and 20th century).
 
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