[bsder]

Any university graduate-level fabrication lab class has the equipment to do this. A self-aligned, metal-gate process is relatively simple. You can probably build something akin to a 6502 in it.

The main issue is creating the masks. I'm not sure where you would get rubylith and the associated machinery for contact printing in this day and age.

As a side note: the thing stopping commodity VLSI is the CAD tools, not the silicon. Silicon runs are around $50K or so for an old node and Fab Shuttle/MPW(multi-project wafer) runs are often under $10K.

[Aeolun]

I don’t know if $60k sounds cheap to you, but I’d hardly call it a commodity.

[bsder]

Injection molds cost $50K all the time and are considered commodity.

Just because you, personally, aren't willing to spend the money doesn't mean something isn't a commodity.