What a fab buys
A state-of-the-art fab for advanced logic or memory costs about $20 billion to build, by SIA and BCG's count. About half of that buys machines, and TSMC writes its machines off over 5 years.
Half is machines.
SIA and BCG put a state-of-the-art fab at roughly $5 billion (advanced analogue) to $20 billion (advanced logic and memory). "About half" goes to manufacturing equipment and 20% to 40% to construction; everything else is our remainder.
Here those sums stand as $100 notes on skids, $64 million to a skid as the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing packs them. The equipment of a $20 billion fab is 156 skids, about 100 tonnes of notes.
Which machines.
Sales of wafer fab equipment came to $116.9 billion in 2025, by SEMI's count. Of CSET's eight segments lithography is the largest; etch and clean plus deposition, by our sum, are larger still. The floor gives each segment its share of sales as space; it is not how a fab lays out its machines.
The machines that print each layer's pattern on the wafer: Writing with light. Makers CSET lists with a page on this record: ASML, Canon and Tokyo Electron.
Plasma etchers, and the tools that clean wafers between steps: Sculpting in atoms. Makers CSET lists: AMEC, Applied Materials, Lam Research, NAURA, Screen and Tokyo Electron.
The tools that lay down the thin films a chip is built from: Sculpting in atoms. Makers CSET lists: Applied Materials, ASM International, Kokusai Electric, Lam Research, NAURA, Tokyo Electron and Veeco.
Inspection and metrology, the tools that measure what the others did: Finding the defect. Makers CSET lists: Applied Materials, ASML, Camtek, KLA, Nova and Onto Innovation.
Implanters fire dopant atoms into the silicon to set how it conducts. Makers CSET lists: Applied Materials and Axcelis.
The track that coats, bakes and develops the resist round each exposure. Makers CSET lists: Lam Research, Screen and Tokyo Electron.
Chemical-mechanical polishing flattens each layer before the next. Makers CSET lists: Applied Materials and Ebara.
CSET groups wafer handlers with photomask handlers, which together "store and transport wafers and photomasks in a fab": here the stockers and the vehicles on the overhead rail. No maker is named for this segment.
Every wafer pays rent.
A fab's machines lose value on its books over a few years, and each year's loss is a cost of every wafer made that year. TSMC writes machinery off over 5 years and buildings over 10 to 20; Intel moved certain production machinery from 5 years to 8 in January 2023.
The price tags.
Each project stands at the amount its company, or a government agency, stated. TSMC's Arizona page puts its investment there at $265 billion, "expanded from $12 billion"; current plans include six logic fabs, two advanced packaging facilities and an R&D centre. Micron plans up to four fabs in New York for $100 billion over 20-plus years. Intel put two in Magdeburg at more than €30 billion in June 2023, and said in July 2025 it would no longer move forward: an outline here. Euro sums stand at their dollar value at the European Central Bank's 2023 average rate, by our arithmetic.
Governments pay part: the European Commission says the EU Chips Act should result in public investments of more than €43 billion, and NIST dedicates $39 billion of US CHIPS funding to incentives for facilities and equipment.
On this record's fab map: TSMC Arizona, Micron New York, Samsung Taylor, JASM Kumamoto, ESMC Dresden and Intel Magdeburg.
Money into machines.
The four largest segments on that floor have an explainer of their own.
- Writing with lightthe lithography segment03
- Sculpting in atomsetch and clean, and deposition05
- Finding the defectprocess control08
- What a chip costsfrom a wafer's cost to a chip's10
- The memory cyclewhat happens when everyone builds at once14
Chipmakers named on this page, and on this record: Intel, Micron, Samsung Electronics and TSMC, with Sony Semiconductor Solutions in JASM and Bosch, Infineon and NXP in ESMC. Where the fabs are: the fab map.