[heimatau]

> The main problem is that there is no profit in chip manufacturing

This isn't true. Check out the margins of TSMC, it tends to be 40% or so.

But to maintain this lead in the industry, they need to massively reinvest for the next smaller process. With that said, profits are great but they don't endure (software development is somewhat more 'sticky' especially since everyone is doing SaaS which provides more incentives for competition and many companies are growing even with covid19 changing the market landscape).

[rusticpenn]

Maybe it is so with the monopolized ( or duopolized if we consider Samsung) foundry today. I visited Global Foundries just before they stopped investing in smaller nodes ( and Infineon which was nearby). Listening to the profits they made and the problems they had ( and my own experiences), I realised that the complete business flow for chip manufacturing is flawed somewhere. I did not have enough motivation to look into detail at that time.

Of course, most of the big foundries would still be open, if the profits were anywhere more than 10%.