Intel Samsung and other small companies are gradually monopolized chip production

Due to the new production plant to invest at least $3 billion or more, the chip industry is forced to give up the idea to build their own factories, which makes the semiconductor manufacturing capacity of a few large companies still positive.

At the Reuters Semiconductor summit in, many officials said they would like to work with the Taiwan and other regions of the chip manufacturers to reach a foundry agreement. Some companies in order to raise funds to form a three party or even the Quartet cooperation. In the end, only the world's leading chip makers, Intel and Samsung Electronics, and a handful of other companies, such as TI, may build their own semiconductor factories. Rambus is a semiconductor design company that licenses its technology to other chip makers. The company's CEO Harold Hughes said: "these new technologies are surprisingly expensive."

Professional chip maker LSI Logic Corp is the choice to give up the largest semiconductor manufacturer called wafer fab. Instead, the company has joined the ranks of large, non production line chip designers. It has been in the light of the implementation of the "fab-lite" strategy, the majority of its production outsourcing to the Asian industry and commerce, only the only remaining factory operations. The company is currently looking for buyers at its Gresham plant in Oregon, USA. The company CEO Abhi Talwalkar said, LSI intends to retain only part of the production in the plant, and the new production is mainly outsourced to the Asian foundry. Talwalkar said that this decision is well understood, the development of the next generation of technology and the cost of building a fab often requires $80-100 billion. Rambus's Hughes said the industry will have only two companies capable of operating their own wafer fab, Intel and Samsung electronics.

Market Research Analyst Gartner Jim Hines semiconductor equipment industry told the media that, for new entrants to the industry will face a major obstacle, that is the cost of the chip design, an important new chip product design costs $50 million, while 10 years ago the cost of $5 million. During the period of survival of the Fab can recover the investment but also make investors feel doubt, according to market research firm Gartner estimates that if it is in a factory equipped with 65 of the most advanced nanotechnology, to produce the output of 5 billion U.S. dollars to recover the $3 billion investment must be in its operation period.