Michael Snyder (Opinion) - Of all the shortages that we are currently facing, the global computer chip shortage may be the most serious. That is because the chip shortage is expected to last “a few years”, and just about every sector of the world economy will be dramatically affected by this. When people think of products that contain computer chips, they tend to think of electronic devices such as televisions, phones and laptops. But computer chips are in thousands of other products as well. They are in the vehicles that we drive, they are in the toys our children play with, and they are in the heavy machinery that farmers use to produce our food. Without computer chips, our society as it is constituted today simply could not function, and so this is a really big deal.
Right now, global demand for computer chips is far outpacing global supply.
Some may assume that the answer is just to quickly build a bunch more factories and start pumping out more chips, but it isn’t that simple.
At this point, chips have become incredibly sophisticated, and manufacturing them can be extremely complicated…
There are up to 1,400 steps in the overall manufacturing process for semiconductor wafers; it can take as long as 20 weeks to complete advanced chips, and fabs can use as many as 300 different types of materials throughout fabrication. “It’s almost impossible to start chip manufacturing from scratch,” says Priestley. “This is why we are seeing industry consolidation: it has become so difficult and expensive to do, that companies just couldn’t afford to do it on their own.”
Over the decades, the percentage of chips ...READ MORE
MichaelSnyder is a nationally syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of 5 books including his latest, Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” which is available on Amazon.com. He has four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. Michael allows others to republish his work on other websites because he feels people need hope more than ever before, and its his goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.