fabless foundry model

The fabless-foundry business model lets a chip company build products without owning the fab that manufactures them. **The commercial contract is deeper than a wafer order.** A serious foundry engagement involves a PDK, IP licenses, mask costs, wafer service terms, capacity commitments, packaging assumptions, yield ownership, confidentiality, and engineering support. The business model works only when those pieces line up with the product schedule. | Commercial item | What it covers | Why it matters | |---|---|---| | PDK access | Rules, models, corners, and sign-off collateral | Lets the design team target the process correctly | | NRE and masks | One-time engineering and mask expenses | Determines the cost of a tape-out or re-spin | | Wafer agreement | Pricing, starts, allocation, and delivery terms | Converts demand forecast into manufacturing capacity | | Yield and test plan | How good die are measured and improved | Drives unit economics and launch confidence | **Node selection is a business decision, not a vanity metric.** The right process is the one that balances performance, cost, IP availability, package strategy, schedule, and supply confidence for the product being built.