The Global Chip Shortage is Alarming: Less than A Few Days of Inventory?

Chips — or semiconductors — are used in many fields from cars, medical devices, rockets, and everything that involves electronics. With the recent hits taken to the supply chain due to the pandemic, the normal methods for producing chips are having a hard time catching the demand. It is widespread news that companies are down to several days of inventory and the prices are going out of hand.

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What is the current situation of the global chip shortage?

The demand seems to increase a lot faster than the supply with all the crypto-mining, digitalization, e-business, and metaverse attempts. Computer chips become items that are sought after and supply is drying up since the production involves a lot of complex procedures. Add the monopoly and hoarding of the producing companies as well, then you get a global chip shortage. However, it seems that the government also seems concerned about the issue, so much that they officially talk about this problem and pass legislation in Congress.

The legislation that passed was that the congress would provide an investment of 52 billion dollars for domestic production, while quotes regarding the fragility of the industry was common. While these methods require a good starting point, more effort would surely be needed in the future if the supply chain cannot return to normal. Just look at how detailed semiconductor fabrication is!

Credit: Pixabay

Here’s what the solution is

The one solution might be what Congress is doing, providing funding for production and pushing companies to produce. Another solution can be a more research-based approach to researching new methods for improving production practices and increasing efficiency. The third one could be a business approach where new legislation can force companies to meet the demand and stop hoarding the items, however, that would be a very aggressive move meeting with a lot of reaction. All of these have results that are still in the future for us to see. For now, only one thing is certain and it is the fact that we are officially in a global chip shortage.

While our lives become more and more intertwined with the development and supply regarding the technology around us, it is important to overcome barriers that are involving the development of these technologies. Or else, how would the new and ambitious projects such as “Electric Cars of Sony” or “Flying Taxi” I wrote about would be done? When technology becomes inseparable from our lives, sustaining it should also become one of our priorities.