Very roughly 25% of the cost of a fab is non-equipment. However, you don't sit down and write one big check all at once. First you buy the land, then you hire the architects and the general contractor. Later on, as the building goes up, you start to sign POs for equipment, but you don't actually pay for the equipment until it's installed.
Since in any given year, a company like INTC will have several fabs in various stages of construction, the % of any year's cap. ex. devoted to equipment will swing wildly. A smaller company, with only one fab under construction, will have even bigger swings in the ratio.
Industry-wide, it probably does average out to a 75/25 split every year, so that's still a useful rule of thumb. If nothing else, equipment maker capacity probably keeps everyone from being in the same building stage at once. Except, just to keep life interesting, equipment costs may be growing faster than the other stuff, thereby changing the ratio. (Reasons are beyond the scope, but the two sectors have different drivers.)
Katherine |
