Jim Bell and I commented some time ago on this dilemma. One obvious solution is "table top" manufacture of VLSI.
As crazy as it sounds, for at least prototyping and small (CPunk) PoC projects, its possible to fab a wide variety of chips, with impressive feature sizes, implantation, doping, etc. using Electron Beam Lithography. EBL is basically operating an electron microscope in reverse. Because it uses electrons to illuminate the substrate vs. photons it doesn't require any litho masks. The beams can directly write to the surfaces and with the appropriate techniques expose chemicals that create the "resists" of typical litho methods. Best of all, electron beams can be brought to a sharper focus than even deep UV meaning small feature size capabilities.
The main reason EBL is only a tech oddity is its
inability to be used for volume manufacture. Maybe someone in this field
will do an ICO. EBL can potentially be operated by a much smaller staff (maybe a competent enough individual) than even the smallest conventional fab. With at least small scale manufacture and some careful design attention I think the list price on a rig could be < $100k USD.
Steve