Chipmakers are producing more units than ever, glut concerns rising
Some are wondering if companies' heightened production efforts will result in oversupply.
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What you need to know
The global semiconductor shortage has been causing kerfuffles in all sorts of sectors, from automobiles to thebest gaming laptops. Production pipelines have been slowed and stalled thanks to a lack of chips. And companies are working hard to fix that.
In a report byNikkei Asia, it’s tallied that the nine leading chipmakers globally have amassed an inventory worth $64.7 billion as of June. That record-high figure is a result of production efforts being escalated to combat the worldwide shortage, achieved even as many Southeast Asian chipmakers have suspended operations due to COVID-19 and its consequences.
These efforts are not without reason.NVIDIA expects shortagesto last through 2022.Other companieshave their sights set on 2023. Governments around the world are bustling toaccelerate semiconductor operations, andChinaand the U.S. are having something of atech war with each otherover the topic.
However, despite all the discourse describing the situation as doom and gloom, there are those who are seeing supply chains return to some semblance of normalcy, raising concerns that too much production ramping could lead to an overstocking glut in the future. For example, SK Hynix and Micron Technology reported steady inventory declines, which goes against the flying-off-the-shelves narrative other companies are operating within.
With that said, even if some companies are seeing semiconductor supply problems disappearing, consumers are still suffering across the board at the far end of the pipeline. Just ask anyone who’s been trying to get their hands on thebest graphics cardsand has visited aBest Buyrecently.
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Robert Carnevale is the News Editor for Windows Central. He’s a big fan of Kinect (it lives on in his heart), Sonic the Hedgehog, and the legendary intersection of those two titans, Sonic Free Riders. He is the author ofCold War 2395. Have a useful tip? Send it to robert.carnevale@futurenet.com.
