Chip Fab Now Costs US$2.5 Billion

Chip fabs just keep getting more expensive.  The AP, via Wired, reports that Intel is investing US$2.5 billion in a new factory in China.  The facility will churn out chips only for the Chinese market, evidently, and using old technology.  U.S. export rules require that Intel restrict the fab to using 90-nm processing, whereas chips made and sold in the U.S. will soon use a 45-nm process.

And biology just keeps getting cheaper.