ABSTRACT
Have you ever wondered how the microchips are made that run your computer, mobile phone, digital camera, and such other electronic devices? Behind the scenes of high-profile computer retailers like Dell and Apple, there are two other layers of companies involved in microchip production: chip producers and capital-equipment suppliers. That first background layer includes companies like Intel, AMD, and Freescale semiconductor-computer-chip producers that supply microchips to the computer retailers. There are relatively few such companies-approximately 30 internationally-because the cost of building a manufacturing facility can be a multi-billion dollar endeavor. One reason the cost is so high is that the manufacturing facilities need multi-million dollar pieces of capital equipment to produce the chips.
