1) Because it's a really expensive treadmill. It took a stupid amount of money to get on the treadmill (TSMC--$200 million in 1987), takes a stupidly larger am

1) Because it's a really expensive treadmill. It took a stupid amount of money to get on the treadmill (TSMC--$200 million in 1987), takes a stupidly larger amount of money to go to the next layer of the treadmill ($100 billion+ over the next 3 years), and, if you fall off, you aren't getting back on the treadmill. 2) The lead times on the equipment are measured in years As the podcast points out, TSMC has bought AMSL's production of machines for the next 5 years. Those are lithography machines that nobody can buy for any amount of money for the next 5 years. To compete, you need to set up not just the fab but the infrastructure supplying the fab. So, in the short term, nobody is dethroning TSMC.