Comment by magicalhippo
3 months ago
> I have a hypothesis that it was AI, not COVID/sanctions/etc, that was mainly responsible for the 2020-to-ongoing "chip shortage."
Might be for higher-end chips like GPUs, but for smaller ones like microcontrollers it was very much COVID that threw a huge wrench in the gears.
Things are closer to normal now, but the toilet paper effect hit the electronics supply chain hard during COVID. People resorted to buying dev boards just to desolder the microcontroller on it to use in their commercial product, and similar desperate moves. With lead time measured in many months to years even when the factories are operational, sudden hoarding is not what you want.
It wasn't COVID directly, it was the car companies canceling and then uncanceling their massive chip orders that caused the shock in the semiconductor supply chain.