Glossary term
Fab (Fabrication Facility)
A semiconductor manufacturing plant; leading-edge fabs cost $15-25B+ to build, concentrating production among a few players.
A Fab is a semiconductor fabrication facility where wafers are processed into chips. A leading-edge fab costs $15-25B+ to build and equip, which concentrates advanced manufacturing among TSMC, Samsung, and Intel. The capital intensity and the multi-year build time are why foundry capacity is a slow-moving constraint on the entire chip supply chain. See Foundry Economics 101.