Also, doesn't chip manufacturing require a lot of water? Water is not the first thing that comes to mind when I hear Arizona. I think I'm about to learn a lot with this.
Yes, ~10 million gallons per day (equivalent to 33,000 households). But the plant's water recycling and re-use is very efficient, so it's mostly a one-time hit up front.
From what I read the overriding factor was geological stability. Apparently these factories are very sensitive to vibrations. I guess when you do precision work at nanometer scale these things matter.
Arizona isn't water rich, but it manages to keep the 4 million people around Phoenix hydrated, so there is water.
It's notoriously unsustainable. Those water intensive crops would be wildly infeasible if the farmers had to pay anything close to a market price for the obscene amounts of limited water they consume.
Elon Musk did it with his Giga Factory somewhere in the range of 11 to 14 months in Texas. It’s 5 times the size of the pentagon and they build more than just top of the line Tesla Chips there.
Some states have less regulations than others. He said if he tried that in California, it would take an unlimited and indefinite time to complete (100 years+) due to so many permits and regulations.
