How does it actually compare to other industries, namely defense, aerospace and oil. These are all capital intensive, and if you want to be generous re the term "building", some of those refineries and shipyards are gigantic.
The $12 billion given as the cost for TSMC's new Phoenix fab would buy you approximately 1 new Ford-class American aircraft carrier or a ~10% share in Canada's oil extraction industry.
Chip manufacturing really is the industrial big leagues.
And that's the bullshit, $30,000-toilet seat, parts-manufactured-in-every-congressional-district, Defense Contractor Special™ price. It should really buy you three or four aircraft carriers.
The last Nimitz-class carrier, CVN-77, cost $6.2 billion and was ordered in 2001, while the Ford cost $13 billion and was ordered in 2008. After adjustment for inflation in that period, it's only about 1.5x as expensive.
Inspired by an Apple II https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agat_(computer)
clone of the Intel 8086 CPU https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K1810VM86