Intel said that consumer chips may experience shortages in the third quarter
The shortage of chips and related components has plagued the semiconductor industry for several quarters. Although many companies have invested to increase production capacity, the problem has not been resolved. According to SeekingAlpha, Intel’s Chief Financial Officer George Davis said on Intel’s second-quarter 2021 conference call with analysts and investors this week that continued industry-wide component and substrate shortages are expected to reduce revenue for customers’ computing divisions and it will continue for several quarters. For customers, it seems that the third quarter will become particularly serious. However, in terms of data centers, it is expected that government, enterprises, and cloud computing will recover further in the third quarter.
A few years ago, due to the huge demand for high-end Core and Xeon processors, Intel’s fab encountered capacity problems and finally expanded the production line. This also allows Intel to have sufficient production capacity to produce products with 14nm and 10nm processes. Compared with the current situation in the semiconductor industry that is generally experiencing capacity shortages, Intel’s sufficient production capacity and control of the supply chain have become the key to reversing the decline. However, this does not mean that Intel will not encounter trouble. The lack of ABF substrate is a problem that Intel has been working hard to solve in recent months.
From motherboard chipsets, entry-level cheap processors to high-end processors for servers, these chips need to be packaged in laminates, which require ABF substrate. According to the situation in previous years, the demand for PC will reach its peak from September to November, and related products will be advanced. Generally, the highest peak occurs from August to September. Intel will be under tremendous pressure on the supply of ABF substrates. Therefore, Intel expects that the shortage of client PCs, chipsets, and other components may be particularly severe in the third quarter, but will improve in the fourth quarter.
In April this year, it was reported that Intel invested in the production of packaging facilities and substrates, hoping to complete the production of ABF substrates in its own packaging facilities to ensure supply.
