CHIP SHORTAGE WILL LAST INTO 2024, INTEL CEO SAYS

The shortage of computer chips that chip-maker Intel had expected to end next year now will extend into 2024 as manufacturers scramble to add equipment and boost production, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger told The Wall Street Journal.

“We have seen that equipment shortages are really impeding the ability of the industry to ramp supply at the pace we earlier thought,” he said.

The company’s first-quarter sales slumped 7 percent to $18.35 billion, below expectations, and generating net income of $1.8 billion.

Sales of chips for personal computers sank 13 percent, with demand for lower-end PCs especially weak, the company said.

The sales slump indicates the frenzy for technology that marked the COVID War is ending, the WSJ noted.

TREND FORECAST: The chip shortage will be a continuing drag on manufacturing worldwide, as we noted in “Chip Shortage Hampers Global Manufacturing” (23 Mar 2021), and thus an ongoing damper on economic expansion (“Global Chip Shortage Slashes Economic Outlook,” 2 Nov 2021).

As a result, the shortage will remain a key driver of continued inflation, speeding the world into Dragflation, a Top 2022 Trend, and prolonging its time in that condition.