According to the Wall Street Journal, the global shortage of chips that has plagued the world over the past two years could soon spread to more advanced chips to power the next generation of smartphone and data center.

The two-year chip shortage has only influenced the low-end chips so far, but that could change as semiconductor manufacturers struggle to get the equipment to manufacture more advanced processors.

The report points out that the supply gap of advanced chips is likely to reach 20% by 2024, which will have a knock-on effect on the relevant industries such as AI, high-performing computing, and self-driving cars.

Due to technical obstacles and the huge investment required, only two chip-makers, TSMC and Samsung, have the ability to produce high-end chips.

In some cases, the delivery period of new orders has been extended by two to three years. An industry insider revealed that some customers of TSMC have received warnings that equipment procurement problems may prevent the company from increasing production in the next two years.

In the face of these challenges, both TSMC and Samsung Electronics stated that they were working to avoid interference in chip production.

Source from ECCN