Shortage of 50-Cent Chips Holds Up $50,000 Cars, TSMC Chief Says
- Legacy chip shortages are slowing production on cutting edge
- Company is building new factories to relieve demand pressure
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An endemic shortage of chips costing anywhere from 50 cents to $10 is slowing down swathes of the $600 billion semiconductor industry, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s top executive warned Tuesday.
The persistent deficit of such low-end chips is holding up production in key segments of the supply chain, Chief Executive Officer C. C. Wei told attendees at a tech symposium. ASML Holding NV of the Netherlands is struggling to obtain $10 chips for its extreme ultraviolet lithography systems, or EUVs, he said. TSMC has dozens of the machines, which are critical for packing more power onto smaller slivers of silicon. Elsewhere, a 50-cent radio chip has been holding up the production of $50,000 cars, Wei said, without elaborating.