They will lose the only competitive advantage that they have over intel.

The ability control the pricing on it's chips.

What is going to motivate these fabs to perfect the newer processes for optimal yields of AMD specific designs.

I understand GPU's getting farmed out because they are always at least a generation behind CPU's (usually) in terms of fabriaction processes. The design and fabrication of CPU's are not independant processes. Iterations of design should take into consideration the existing limitations of fabrication and adjust accordingly.

Without access to the fabs and people "on the ground" there then they will lose touch of these limitations and suffer.

I totally agree. Fabrication must continue to be closely coupled with design otherwise AMD will simply become another x86 compatible has-been. I hope that doesn't happen since AMD is the only real competitor Intel has, and without competition Intel will not be motivated to create high quality product for reasonable prices.

Austin doesn't care for AMD. Really. A lot.

They built a new complex right over the recharge zone of a very fragile aquifer, one that's already overloaded from too much development. They sold their old fab to a subsidiary, and collected huge tax write-offs on the new building.

Now they get to sell their new building, and no doubt keep the tax deductions. Way to go!