Investors fumed when Alphatec announced in February it would buy a controlling stake in Submicron, a wafer-fabrication plant owned by Chaarn.

CNN: Gone Fishing in Bangkok?

Samsung Electronics, the world's largest producer of memory chips, closed its wafer-fabrication plant and gave its employees one week off to enjoy sun and sand.

CNN: The Chips Are Still Down

Critics complain that no one makes anything in Silicon Valley anymore, a two-decade-long gripe that arcs from Apple s decision to shut down its Fremont, California factory in 1992 through Intel s shuttering of its last Silicon Valley chip-fabrication plant in 2009.

FORBES: Made In Silicon Valley