May 9, 2022—The chip shortage is reportedly affecting the chipmakers themselves, as well. Chipmakers are running out of chips for their chipmaking machines, causing a domino affect that only adds to the current supply chain struggles across the auto industry.
According to CBT News, the industry's demand for more chips leaves the chipmaking manufacturers trying to keep up and ultimately falling behind because they cannot access the amount of chips that they need to produce more of them.
This results in issues for everyone, and it doesn't appear that the chip shortage will be improving anytime soon. According to CBT News, this shortage could push past 2022 and the industry could still be feeling its impact in 2024, or perhaps even longer.
The last couple of years have been a learning experience for manufacturers of all kinds, including chip makers. The pandemic has forced companies to make decisions based upon demand for essential items. As shifts in supply and demand continue across the globe, some chipmakers are having to reevaluate priorities.
Ganesh Moorthy, CEO of Microchip Technology Inc. has said that his company “is treating chip-equipment suppliers as priority customers, not unlike the way it treated medical-device manufacturers at the onset of the pandemic.”
On the auto maker side, there are around 2,000 chips found in the average electric vehicle, which is double the amount in an ICE vehicle. Naturally, these shortages can take toll on the production of both, but EVs are especially suffering.
Demand is exceeding supply by over 30%, but auto makers simply can't make EVs if they don't have access to chips. Additionally, semiconductor production mostly comes out of China and Taiwan, so there are bound to be more delays due to shutdowns and the supply chain in general.
