Fabs require many expensive devices to function. Estimates put the cost of building a new fab over one billion U.S. dollars with values as high as $3–4 billion not being uncommon. TSMC invested $9.3 billion in its Fab15 300 mm wafer manufacturing facility in Taiwan.[2] The same company estimations suggest that their future fab might cost $20 billion.[3] A foundry model emerged in the 1990s: Foundries that produced their own designs were known as integrated device manufacturers (IDMs). Companies that farmed out manufacturing of their designs to foundries were termed fabless semiconductor companies. Those foundries, which did not create their own designs, were called pure-play semiconductor foundries.[4]
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A typical EUV scanner cost around $300 million. So if you get 10 scanners that’s 3 billion alone. Fab Equipment is where the cost is
Leading edge fab at scale is more than 10B and even then not a big gigafactory.
Look at TSMC Fab18, the closest is the Fab 12-22-32-42 in Phoenix but it took Intel more than two decades to build that complex while TSMC does that in a few years.
Why can TSMC do it can you say cumulative scale of customers called Apple, Nvidia, AMD, Qualcomm, MediaTek, Broadcom and even Intel manufacture there.
Intel talks about a secret whale more like a wet dream
Logic/Foundry fabs are still less expensive compared to 3D-NAND. Cost of YMTC Wuhan fab is nearly $30 bn. Latest Samsung Pyeongtaek line is around $22 bn, in addition to $35 bn previous investment. Yokkaichi complex (8 Fabs, jointly owned by Kioxia and WD) is about $65 bn. Micron is planning to invest $75+ bn near Syracuse, NY.
https://www.kedglobal.com/korean-chipmakers/newsView/ked202209070011
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/15/samsung-to-spend-228-billion-on-the-worlds-largest-chip-facility.html
This post has more acronyms then an Intel Circuit article.