One thing that is unclear to me from the article:
Is the idea that it will manufacture all of these chips and then both the 'factory' and the resulting materials will return from space, or that the factory would stay in orbit and send materials back?
Just a tiny part of the operation will happen in space. The result of that will return, then will be made into chips on earth.
Return.
The idea is that they get government funding from credulous civil servants. There is no actual idea here, there is no business. The idea that a country that is unable to supply basic infrastructure is suddenly going to build CPUs in space is obvious bullshit.
The idea is that the furnace will melt the silicon into a 'boule' (cylinder). <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boule_(crystal)> The solid boule will be returned to Earth for lab analysis.