Chip Shortage Could Ease Next Year, Says Qualcomm CEO

Last Updated on December 6, 2021 by Anu Joy

On Thursday, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said that the global chip shortage was easing, according to The Elec. Furthermore, he added that he expects the situation to improve next year.

We had earlier explained what caused the situation and predicted that it could only get worse. However, Amon is more optimistic about the future of chips.

Amon told reports from South Korea:

Supply has improved this year over 2020 and the situation is expected to improve even more in 2022, especially compared to 2020.

Arm CEO Simon Segars, however, did not share in his optimism. He predicted that the ‘unprecedented’ crisis would continue till 2022. Intel CEO Patrick Gelsinger was even more cynical regarding the situation. He had earlier warned that the global chip shortage could likely extend to at least 2023.

This is what he had said about the semiconductor shortage:

We’re in the worst of it now, every quarter, next year we’ll get incrementally better, but they’re not going to have supply-demand balance until 2023.

Contrary to the rosy picture painted by Amon, The Elec reports that many smartphone makers were unable to get enough chips from Qualcomm. It further added that even Samsung chief TM Roh was unable to procure chips, during his trip to the US to meet “major US component makers”.

Just this week, Qualcomm had announced its Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Processor. It will be used in most high-end Android smartphones that will be launched in 2022. It will be made by the Samsung Foundry, TSMC’s closest competitor, on its latest 4nm process. It is reported that the company’s chip yield rate will determine Qualcomm’s ability to supply chips.

The years 2020-2021 saw a global shortage of chips, coinciding with the global pandemic. Smartphone production was not the only industry affected. The shortage had an adverse impact on more than 169 industries such as automobiles and GPUs, to name a few.

What do you think of Qualcomm’s CEO’s take on the global chip shortage? Let us know in the comments below.