Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger expects that chip shortages will continue through to 2024.
On an interview with CNBC's TechCheck, Gelsinger suggested that a lack of availability of tools to manufacture chips would drag out shortages, making it harder to reach high 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,” Gelsinger said on the TV interview.
A number of analysts had suggested that the end is near for the shortage with expanded wafer production and slightly less demand in the marketplace.
While Intel is the sole American company the makes its own processors, it still is reliant on outsourcing. Gelsinger famously made the decision to produce certain "leadership CPU products" in 2023 through TSMC.
Intel is also expanding its business with its Foundry services, making chips for other companies.
"We feel like we're better positioned than most," Gelsinger said in a separate interview with Bloomberg. "The combination of our internal capacity as well as our leverage of foundries — we're just better positioned, and that's part of the structural advantage that Intel has."
The news comes as Intel forecasted a lighter second fiscal quarter than investors expected. The company's latest earnings beat expectations, but tempered the market, as shares fell during after-hours trading when the announcement was made.
In April, ASML, the world's largest maker of lithography scanners, said it could only fulfill 60% of orders for the chipmaking tools this year. The company's chief executive warned that it couldn't keep up with demand from the companies that need its tools.
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Intel is currently working on building a new "mega site" for manufacturing in Ohio, but its first fab isn't expected to go online until 2025. The company is also expected to open a site in Germany and is investing in its plants in Arizona.
Back in September, AMD CEO Lisa Su suggested that the chip shortage would start to resolve itself in late 2022, painting a rosier picture of the market. It's unclear if AMD's thoughts on the situation have changed since.
