COTS parts are part of defense supply chain management. Only manufacturer of critical components within 200 km from Chinese border is strategic vulnerability, COTS or not.
No, we disagree. I think this fab manufactures almost exclusively to defense even if it manufactures COTS parts. Building small volume fab for 2/3 of the cost of new GIGAFAB makes no sense for commercial purposes.
The cost of the building is minor compared to the cost of the wafer equipment. It is not uncommon to build a Fab but only fill it with a fraction of the equipment capacity. Fabs can be scaled up when demand increases.
The equipment is costly (lithography equipment especially) but everything around them is also very expensive, including building. Huge Class 4 clean rooms, water purification, etc. There are lots of chemicals, acids and their processing involved. There are pipes moving liquid helium, nitrogen etc. Semiconductor fab is essentially a chemical plant.
