Currently we are in several crises. The Corona crisis, the hunger crisis, and more. For those people who are tech savvy, they know that there is currently a massive chip shortage. But how come we have to see astronomically high prices in graphics cards, processors, ram and even cars?
Cryptocurrencies
2009, a year after the financial crisis. A pseudonym named Satoshi Nakamoto wanted to create an inflation protection in a digital way. But what does that have to do with today's chip shortage? To "mine" these cryptocurrencies, you need data carriers with strong performance. Because when you "mine" cryptocurrencies, you get rewards. Graphics cards are very popular among "miners" (those who "mine" cryptocurrencies). Even more so the high-end models, as these sometimes pay out astronomically high rewards. As a result, the supply is getting smaller and thus a huge price increase follows, so that graphics cards are sometimes sold for 3x the MSRP.
Corona crisis
A special situation. All the stores, all the factories, all the offices have to close. So where do you have to work? At home. To do home office/home schooling, it takes a laptop. No problem for the home user. However, producers were overwhelmed with the rapid increase in demand. As a result, there were supply bottlenecks and factories were working at their maximum production capacities.
Ever Given
It is hard to imagine that a boat would contribute to a crisis. However, a ship owned by Evergreen paralyzed the Suez Canal in March, causing delays all over the world. After all, according to trade experts, almost 15% of world trade depends on the Suez Canal.
TSMC
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is another reason why this crisis has arisen. Companies like Microsoft, Apple, Intel, AMD, Nvidia and others are big customers of TSMC. So they only manufacture their chips at one distributor, which means that TSMC's factories were (and still are) running at full speed. Intel has decided to invest $20 billion in a fab in the state of Arizona to produce their chips themselves.
What can you do?
Stop buying things that need electronic parts. Because we are all affected by the rising prices, except for Apple, because they charge such astronomical prices even before the chip shortage that you still make a profit. The automotive industry is also very much affected by the chip crisis, as the navigation system, ventilation and various displays require chips. That is why it is not very advisable to buy a car at the moment.
