Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

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.


> due to the limited number of people in the world with the know-how to make these products

Absolutely nothing to do with this lol, and everything to do with it being ridiculously capital-intensive.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: