[TeMPOraL]

> Setting up a new line would not make business sense since a new equipment would cost in the realm of $250 Million for a line, and take a year or more to set up. Not to mention, lead times for new equipment was also extending.

Here's where this could get ironic: what if they wouldn't be able to set up that line anyway, since the equipment they'd need itself requires the very chip they just stopped producing?

I wonder if such circular dependencies are already a consideration in the semiconductor business.

[gymbeaux]

I feel like the number of such chips required for “production scaling” would be so low that they could find a cache of said chips for said purpose if they wanted/needed to.