Peter S. Goodman

And even if an American company were trying to do this, it would be new to them because we, it turns out, don't have regulations governing this particular industry at the county and the municipal level.

level.

Correct.

So TSMC actually has to write 18,000 rules that they then have to comply with while they're trying to figure out like, well, let's see, you've got this federally administered clean air program, but it's the

We actually have to deal with to get the permit.

And they have to write the language.

18,000 rules cost them $35 million.

Just to write the rules.

Just to write the rules, it turns out.

Correct.

But this is like the frontier, right?

So they actually have to get down into the nitty gritty of educating the people who are supposed to be regulating them on what it is that they're doing and what could go wrong and how it needs to be done.

What's the most intriguing rule you came across?

Well, at one point, there was a supplier, a company called Lindy, that makes air separation equipment.

The inside of these computer chip factories has to have really pure air.

And so they pipe in this clean air from a neighboring plant.

And just to move...

a mound of dirt and then leave part of the mound in place required 15 different permits and more than 15 different inspections.

Right.

Then they quickly figure out that there aren't enough people with the right sorts of skills to build one of these plants.