> Here's one that is: https://www.appliedmaterials.com/us/en/semiconductor/epic-pl...

This might be a refutation but it's not super clear. It's definitely not a commercial semiconductor fab but it might do all of or some subset of what a commercial fab does at R&D scale. Hard to know for sure how this jives with the claim in the main website.

> If you can do all that without getting new permits then that makes California sound like a pretty lenient place to do business.

Being able to retool under original zoning/permitting is specifically lenient? That's extremely basic. If you're a co-Californian with me, though, it does help to understand that many people think that anyone doing anything without a permit is "lenient".

> I'm assuming they did have to get new permits though.

Well, that makes it really easy to be "right". I should try this more.