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by 101011 811 days ago
Not a dumb question, but because they are so expensive to build, fabs have a high upfront cost before they can start to turn a profit. Oddly, the older a fab is, typically the more money it will make you.

It's also a big part of the reason as to why so many fab companies have died out. Building a new fab with the latest tech is extremely expensive. If you have a couple of big swings and misses, you can easily burn a tremendous amount of your capital.