Shortages are like to continue because key manufacturing tools aren’t as readily available as hoped, meaning there aren’t enough chips being made to supply demand.
“That’s part of the reason that we believe the overall semiconductor shortage will now drift into 2024, from our earlier estimates in 2023, just because the shortages have now hit equipment and some of those factory ramps will be more challenged,” he explained.
In October 2021 Gelsinger predicted: “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.”
The topic was brought up again during a Sony financial results Q&A session this week. During the event, Totoki was asked what measures Sony is taking to combat semiconductor shortages, which Intel recently warned will now likely last until 2024.
While Totoki’s response didn’t specifically reference PS5, he said that “in different areas… we have changed our source of procurement and also changed our design amongst others. So, we have been capable of coping. So, for the parts procurement, I think that we have a good outlook”.