Ahh yes, semiconductor fabs, well-known for their low startup and operation costs...

The amortized cost is not that expensive. What's big is the price tag on a new fab with all the new tech gadgets from all the vendors (for example when you buy one big EUV machine from ASML and it takes 40 rounds with their special 747 to deliver it).

> Like semiconductor fabs, keep it clean and automated.

Lets hope not. That's one of the reason why they are so expensive

Semiconductor factories are expensive, sure. Semiconductors are cheap and famously have been getting exponentially cheaper for decades.

I've consumed probably less than a pound of semiconductors in my entire life. I consume almost a pound of protein a day.

silicon (the interesting part) inside plastic that you see is quite small and thin. You would need hundreds/thousands of them to approach the size/weight ratio to single steak.

And silicone that needs that high level of cleanliness is not cheap. Most chips are fabricated on larger/older processes that do not require that high level of cleanliness

The sliced wafer is small, but due to the precision and process requirements everything else is big. Chip fabs have a complete chemical plant in them because they need high purity solvents and deposition feedstock.

That older level of cleanliness is still above a typical pharma factory level cleanliness. (Where there's no laminar air flow and no need for bunny suits, but everything is sterile and consumables like containers, pipes, feedstock is unpacked right before. And there are a number of verification (QA) steps before the finished lot leaves the factory. Just like with chips, just in the pharma/chemical case it can be done in bulk if it's in a homogeneous liquid phase.)