[csboyer]

Paying for the masks is the big upfront cost - into the $5 to $10s of millions depending on the process node.

[lizknope]

Someone told me around $30 million for a 14 layer chip in TSMC 5nm but I couldn't get real confirmation.

[csboyer]

No one who really knows can say due to NDAs. We just know rough order of magnitude price.

I can see $30 million for 5nm. With material costs approaching $20 to $30 a chip for mobile SoCs, you need quite a high sales price and volume for the economics to work.

[baybal2]

14 layers is a suspiciously small number for 5nm.

It will be a big surprise if multiple patterning elimination can reduce the layer count so dramatically.

[KSS42]

14 metal layers.