Historically, maybe, but otherwise that's not how it works. Nowadays, when a new process enters risk production, yields are expected to be sub-optimal (I think

Historically, maybe, but otherwise that's not how it works. Nowadays, when a new process enters risk production, yields are expected to be sub-optimal (I think I read that some of the recent stuff TSMC was making for Apple was below 50%) but it's an economic imperative that they improve (and they do). Abandoning a process once you've built an assembly line would be an existential crisis for a high-end semiconductor company, given the billions of dollars it costs to get to that point (which is a big reason why Intel has been between a rock and a hard place for the past 5 years or so).