3 ms·
Not stockpiling, a lot of people just do actual hoarding, and speculation. Buying out all stocks of some rare MCU which only has probably few million units on
by baybal2 6y ago
Not stockpiling, a lot of people just do actual hoarding, and speculation.
Buying out all stocks of some rare MCU which only has probably few million units on the market at any given time at $0.1 just to resell for a few dollars later is quite real given the unprecedented squeeze.
How much would a car company pay for a rare, out of stock chip which is the only thing missing in a car worth $100k?
There is murmur in Chinese BBSes frequented by industry insiders about distributors intentionally either stuffing their part stock counts, or diminish them to play the price.
- Scoundreller 6y agoSo Martin Shkreli, but instead of pharma, chips. And designing products around perceived availability that doesn’t actually exist.
- WrtCdEvrydy 6y agoJust-in-time manufacturing is pre-medidated on the idea that whatever you need is available immediately for a fair price. I think we'll see some of this in the future where a company's only purpose may be to hedge on bets on what will be unavailable in the near future for "a fair price"
- jaggederest 6y agoA "market-maker", in the form of a financial firm that just skims pennies off, but for chip supply, instead of other financial instruments :)
- WrtCdEvrydy 6y agoI wouldn't be surprised if it ends up being like buying power "in bulk" where you pay a little more but there's a guarantee that when "the chips are down" (sorry, couldn't resist), the company will eat the difference. I do think the market won't use these suppliers a lot just like the US-made masks which got millions of orders but only after china stopped sending stuff.