Key Supplier of Wafers for Chips Has Sold Out Through 2026

[Pemalite]

drkohler said:

Qwark said:

Well materials for chips are also finite and rare metals are rare.

Uh, no?

Silicon is the most common element on Earth. Your local beach may provide it

False. It is the second most common element on Earth after Oxygen.

* Gold is used in the chip bonding process.
* Diamond is sometimes the cutting utensil to cut wafers.
* Copper/Aluminum for the chip wire/routing/pathways.
* Germanium, argon, hydrogen, helium, fluorine, nitrogen, arsenic, antimony, phosphorus, arsine, phosphine, silane, tungsten hexafluride, hydrogen peroxide, nitric acid, sulfuric acid, hydrofluric acid and probably a heap more are used in various stages of chip manufacturing.

Silicon found at the beach is also not 99.99999% pure like that found in microprocessors. Tomato to Potato comparison.

kazuyamishima said:

The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co in Japan will start operations until 2024.

That would help a lot.

I think you might be confused.

They aren't making wafers. They are making chips.
To make chips, you need wafers.

And another factory makes the wafers before sending them to the likes of TSMC foundry.

So in short... If you cannot supply enough Wafers, it doesn't matter how many foundries TSMC builds, it will still be bottlenecked.

Either way... This stems from my prior predictions years ago that whilst 2023-2024 will see an easing of chip shortages, they will continue for some time.