From dearth to glut: why there’s an oversupply of some computer chips
From dearth to glut: why there’s an oversupply of some computer chips
You know those supply chain problems we’ve been telling you about for the last 2½ years? One particularly hard-hit sector has been chips — as in semiconductors — which power everything from your smartphone to, very likely, your car.
Turns out the shortage has turned into a glut, at least for certain kinds of chips.
Early in the pandemic, Stacy Rasgon’s kids were stuck at home during lockdowns.
Brace yourself, this story will sound familiar.
“They were home from school for 18 months,” Rasgon said. “I have four kids, I bought four notebook computers. So, like, I’m not buying any notebooks for a while.”
In addition to being a dad of four, Rasgon is a senior analyst at Bernstein Research.
He explained that chips for PCs and smartphones make up half of the semiconductor industry. “And those are areas where we are seeing this sort of shortage situation turn into a glut,” he said.
That glut is hitting memory chips — which are used in PCs and smartphones — hardest.
They’re fairly similar from one manufacturer to another, according to Chris Miller, an associate professor at Tufts University’s Fletcher School and author of the recent book “Chip War.”
“Companies that produce memory chips don’t have a lot of differentiation between these chips,” he said.
But with specialized chips, say, those used in graphics or artificial intelligence, the market rules are more complex.
“There’s more differentiated products, and different companies face different demand dynamics,” Miller said.
Even during the present economic downturn, supply is tight for these more specialized chips. That includes those that end up in vehicles, said Kristin Dziczek, policy adviser at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s Detroit branch.
“Certainly demand has not fallen off a cliff for automotive chips,” she said. “There’s still considerable pent-up demand for new vehicles.”
That’s one silver lining for the sector.
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