The global semiconductor shortage may continue until 2022, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has warned.
As reported by Bloomsberg, the chipmaker said that the shortages will start to let up in the next quarter. However, Chief Executive C.C. Wei said that the issue will nevertheless potentially persist until 2022 in a conference call to analysts.
Meanwhile, TSMC Chief Financial Officer Wendell Huang said that the company expects around US$30 billion of investments into capacity expansions and upgrades for 2021, with a previous forecast setting the investment amount at US$28 million.
Additionally, TSMC will invest US$100 billion to expand capacity in regards to its fabrication plants, which are running at “over 100% utilization” but still lack the capacity to meet the demands of all of its customers.
“We see the demand continue to be high,” said Wei. “In 2023, I hope we can offer more capacity to support our customers. At that time, we’ll start to see the supply chain tightness release a little bit.”
TSMC isn’t the only party to warn of the chip shortage lasting beyond 2021. Nikkei reported Foxconn as saying that the issue is “likely to extend to at least the second quarter of next year”, while the Washington Post reported Intel as saying, ““I think this is a couple of years until you are totally able to address it. It just takes a couple of years to build capacity.”
In the US, the issue has caught the attention of the Biden administration, with President Biden recently attending the Virtual CEO Summit on Semiconductor and Supply Chain Resilience.
