Intel boss Pat Gelsinger has said that the global chip shortage is likely to last until 2023.
As first reported in Nikkei, the CEO of Intel has said that: “The overall semiconductor shortage is quite significant and the semiconductor industry was growing about 5% per year before COVID,” at a news conference.
“COVID disrupted the supply chains, causing it to go negative,” Gelsinger continued. “Demand exploded to 20% year-over-year and disrupted supply chains created a very large gap … and that exploding demand has persisted.”
The chip shortage has badly affected players looking to buy a PlayStation 5 or an Xbox Series X, with both consoles remaining extremely difficult to purchase over a year from their launch.
“It just takes time to build this capacity to respond to the spike” in demand, he said, highlighting “major” expansions at facilities in the U.S. states of Arizona and New Mexico that have already been announced.
“I expect to announce our next major U.S. site and our next major European site in the near future as well,” he said.
Gelsinger spoke to The Washington Post, in May in which he predicted a similar timeline. “It just takes a couple of years to build capacity,” he said, referring to the need for the issue to be addressed in the long term.
Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Jim Ryan recently commented on the ongoing stock shortages of the PlayStation 5, addressing the “historic demand” that has meant many would-be customers still can’t actually buy the much-sought console.
In a blog post celebrating the PS5’s first birthday, Ryan thanked “everyone in the community for your patience”, adding that “we understand the inventory constraints remain a source of frustration for many of our customers.”
