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Not directly related but I find it hard to understand this chip shortage issue. Is there an excessive demand in certain newer 5nm chip making Fabs or across the

Not directly related but I find it hard to understand this chip shortage issue. Is there an excessive demand in certain newer 5nm chip making Fabs or across the board? Was the shortage actually caused by AMD and ARM chips becoming more popular and as a result the Intel load shifted to TSMC? And does this mean that the Intel plants are idle right now?

londons_explore 5y ago
The shortage is not in 5nm process nodes... It's in 130nm and 90nm process nodes used for automotive components and other "low tech" stuff. The primary driver for the shortage is increased demand, mostly from Asia (where many companies are stockpiling 2+ years supply of chips to prepare for US sanctions)
- trembonator 5y ago
- mohanmcgeek 5y ago
  So why are iphones, graphics cards and mobile processors more expensive/out of stock?
tqkxzugoaupvwqr 5y ago
When the pandemic started, car manufacturers predicted demand for cars will decline drastically and canceled orders from suppliers. Then it turned out demand actually rises because people still have to go to work but don’t want to take public transport, and old cars still need to be replaced with new cars. So they asked their suppliers not just for the original amount of parts but ordered even more parts. But all the chip production slots were already reassigned to customers from other industries. So then the car manufacturers told their suppliers to pay multiples to get the chips (to outbid others) or outright buy the chip production slots from other companies, otherwise they’d have to halt car production lines. The just-in-time philosophy in the car industry made this worse because they have almost no parts in stock. Due to the huge cancelations, reassignments and huge orders, supply chains of different industries fight over available chip production capacity. Bringing chip factories online takes multiple years and chip manufacturers are hesitant to invest into more capacity because when it’s available it might not be needed anymore and they will sit on billion dollar ruins. So this chip shortage will take quite a while until all supply chains run smoothly again.

londons_explore 5y ago

The shortage is not in 5nm process nodes... It's in 130nm and 90nm process nodes used for automotive components and other "low tech" stuff. The primary driver for the shortage is increased demand, mostly from Asia (where many companies are stockpiling 2+ years supply of chips to prepare for US sanctions)

trembonator 5y ago
mohanmcgeek 5y ago
So why are iphones, graphics cards and mobile processors more expensive/out of stock?

tqkxzugoaupvwqr 5y ago

When the pandemic started, car manufacturers predicted demand for cars will decline drastically and canceled orders from suppliers. Then it turned out demand actually rises because people still have to go to work but don’t want to take public transport, and old cars still need to be replaced with new cars. So they asked their suppliers not just for the original amount of parts but ordered even more parts. But all the chip production slots were already reassigned to customers from other industries. So then the car manufacturers told their suppliers to pay multiples to get the chips (to outbid others) or outright buy the chip production slots from other companies, otherwise they’d have to halt car production lines. The just-in-time philosophy in the car industry made this worse because they have almost no parts in stock. Due to the huge cancelations, reassignments and huge orders, supply chains of different industries fight over available chip production capacity. Bringing chip factories online takes multiple years and chip manufacturers are hesitant to invest into more capacity because when it’s available it might not be needed anymore and they will sit on billion dollar ruins. So this chip shortage will take quite a while until all supply chains run smoothly again.