Signal From Noise

Semis, Semis Everywhere … Sometimes Too Much, Sometimes Not Enough

“One day, semiconductor demand and supply will match up – for all of 30 minutes.”
- attributed to Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel (1987 – 1998)

It’s difficult to think of an aspect of our daily lives that doesn’t involve a semiconductor somewhere. From the device you’re using right now to read this to the refrigerator you’re about to raid for a snack, from the smart television you use to binge-watch your favorite series to the traffic lights helping you get home safely every evening, there is nothing in your life that isn’t made possible by some finely etched bits of silicon.

In recent years, the world has discovered just how fragile the semiconductor supply chain can be, and what it means for every aspect of the modern global economy when the supply of semiconductors is disrupted. Disruptions to the flow of semiconductors caused even bigger bottlenecks in car manufacturing. A Deloitte study estimated that the 2020-2021 chip shortage caused $210 billion in lost sales for the automobile industry alone – to say nothing about other industry sectors.

More recently, the U.S. government has realized the full strategic, economic, and even military implications of depending on a globalized semiconductor industry that features single-company chokepoints at var...

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