[bob1029]

I question the amount of secret stealing that could effectively occur in the factory itself. Tool parameters can be loaded over encrypted networks directly from secure systems. Reticles at 7nm and lower nodes are hopelessly impossible to reverse-engineer. Tool operator interfaces can be locked down to provide only the most essential information. What exactly are you going to pilfer from these factories? Everyone knows you buy EUV from ASML. Not a whole lot of insight to be gleaned by just observing operations. Sure, you could decide that IP exfiltration is not going to work and resort to sabotage. Causing defects intentionally is not very difficult, but I doubt you would get away with it for very long. The amount of measuring, logging and tracking that occurs throughout is beyond incredible. Everything is a consideration in the hopes of squeezing out more yield. As a consequence, you have the best audit log in any business on earth.

I've worked in the industry and you can't even go inside the lobby of one of these buildings without having epoxy poured into all the USB ports of your various electronics. Security is best described as absolute in these facilities. Getting into the factory itself is yet another security check. You cannot bring any personal items into the clean room last I was told the rules.