Don't Expect Chip Shortage To End In 2022, Warns TSMC
The chip shortage isn't ending any time soon, at least that's what TSMC says. According to the company, things may not be back to normal until 2023.
The effects of the ongoing chip shortage for PCs and smartphones have already been felt for months, and now according to TSMC, it could extend throughout 2022 and possibly into 2023. TSMC (also known as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing CO.) is the largest contractor for semiconductors and one of the biggest players in the industry overall. In other words, it has particularly valuable insight as to what's happening in the chip/semiconductor space.
There's been a lot of talk about the chip shortage for some time now, and that's because it's affecting businesses all over the spectrum. Auto manufacturers don't have enough chips to power their new vehicles, PC components remain virtually nonexistent, and even companies as large as Apple have reportedly had to delay key production processes. It's something that has had genuine impacts on a lot of different people, and unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be ending any time soon.
TSMC recently held its latest earnings call, and during it, Chief Executive Officer C.C. Wei said, "We see the demand continue to be high. In 2023, I hope we can offer more capacity to support our customers. At that time, we'll start to see the supply chain tightness release a little bit." TSMC plans to invest $30 billion to expand and upgrade the capacity of its production facilities in 2021, but even with all of that money being spent to get things back on track, TSMC doesn't expect the shortage to disappear this year or next.
While the idea of the chip shortage continuing until 2023 is worrying enough on its own, it becomes even more so when considering the companies that TSMC works with. Some of the world's largest tech companies rely on TSMC to create their chipsets, including Apple, Nvidia, AMD, and Qualcomm. That means everything from smartphones, tablets, computers, GPUs, and more could still be hit with limited inventory for the next two years.
Furthermore, TSMC isn't the only company warning that the chip shortage is here to stay. Nvidia recently said that it expects "demand to continue to exceed supply for much of this year," with Intel's CEO also commenting that the shortage may take "a couple of years" to get under control. Those are three industry leaders all making it very obvious that the situation isn't going to magically fix itself any time soon, and while that's may not be good news, it's a simple fact of where the chip market is at right now.
Should chipsets continue to be scarce throughout 2021 and 2022, it'll be fascinating to see what happens with upcoming tech releases throughout the next couple of years. It's already expected that Apple will have to delay its new iPad Pro release, not to mention Google flat-out canceling the release of the Pixel 5a in all but two markets. Stories like that are bound to become even more prevalent as the shortage continues, so don't be surprised if more and more products get hit with delays as the year goes on.
Source: Bloomberg