> Both TSMC and Jim Beam already have to amortize their production equipment over several years. I'm not arguing that this should be changed. This is because the primary risk taken in a distillery build-out or a fab build-out is if there is market demand for a known product. It's primarily a *business* risk, not a *research* risk.

It is interesting that you think building a new state-of-the-art fab isn't a combination of both business and research risk. As I understand, the first X months (up to 2 years) of a fab's life is spent increasing yields. On day one, your semiconductor yields from manuf'd silicon wafers might be completely loss making. I have no idea how TSMC handles this tension between business and research risk when building a new fab. I am sure there is an army of tax lawyers who argue about how to categorize these expenses.