One of the biggest tech stories of this year has been the global chip shortage. The pandemic, of course, is largely responsible for this issue. When COVID first reared its ugly head, automakers figured that sales would be negatively impacted and decided to cancel orders that they made with their chip suppliers.
Qualcomm CEO Amon sees the global chip shortage improving and will continue to improve next year
But the automakers had things all wrong as demand for autos started to take off and this left them short of the important components that vehicles are becoming more reliant on. As a result, as the car manufacturers scooped up the chips that they needed to make automobiles, the global shortage was created. Add the pandemic’s effect on assembly line workers and foundries found themselves short on product to ship.
Qualcomm CEO Amon says that the global chip picture is beginning to improve
As it turns out, Samsung Foundry, the second-largest independent foundry in the world after TSMC, will be manufacturing Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip using its 4nm process node. This chip will be found inside flagship Android handsets next year. A person familiar with Qualcomm and Samsung’s concerns said that Samsung’s 4nm yield rate will be the main factor in determining whether Qualcomm will have enough 8 Gen 1 chips to ship to its customers.
Arm chief Segars says that things will get worse in the chip industry before they get better
As of the end of the second calendar quarter, Strategy Analytics calls Qualcomm the leader in the global smartphone processor market with a 36% share of revenue followed by MediaTek’s 29%. Apple is third with 21%.
