TSMC claims chip shortage is a myth, companies have piled up inventories

It appears that some of the current chip shortage could be artificially induced by one or more companies in the chip supply chain, according to an article in TIME magazine. The article looks at the role that TSMC plays in the global chip manufacturing industry.

TIME has interviewed TSMC President Mark Liu, among others in the industry.

In the interview Mark Liu says “But I told you,” you are the clients of my clients. How could [priorizar a los demás] and not give you chips? “” When asked about complaints from automakers, they were among the first to suggest that TSMC was one of the problems. Due to the various allegations against TSMC, Liu had a team collect data to try to figure out what was going on and see which customers were actually running out of stock and which customers could be accumulating inventory.

There are definitely people stockpiling chips in the supply chain

The end result of this was that TSMC decided to reallocate part of the production to customers that it believed were running out of product, while those with inventory had their allocation of new wafers reduced. This was apparently not a popular decision, but it seems fair, considering the current situation.

Liu said: “There are definitely people hoarding chips in the supply chain.” This suggests that it is not TSMC customers who are the problem here, but the middlemen and distributors who are hoarding chips and pushing prices up.