Plenty of chip expertise there. Just throw more cores at it.
Or, if you want to go AI/ML (where there is certainly a premium), do a chip like Google did with limited precision and plenty of pathways for Matrix Multiplication.
Much of the process is robotic now, so labor costs are not a killer like they used to be. Energy and environmental regulations are the big killers.
Incidentally, Germany is big on manufacturing industrial lasers. Same sort of thing - lots of robotics in the factory, and a well-trained cadre of technicians since they didn't waste their time at a university, but had good internships.
Go Cougs!!!!!!!!