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China's SMIC has recently said that memory shortages are affecting broader supply chains, and the CEO said many customers are looking to scale back chip orders. …
… This indicates that electricity generation is expected to pose a significant challenge for Taiwan in the near future. More importantly, TSMC accounts for more than 10% of Taiwan's total electricity output, meaning any disruptions could have a profound effect on TSMC's semiconductor production lines. …
… For those unaware, the AI industry is in dire need of DRAM production scaling up, as every AI cluster requires HBM capacity per chip, which in turn generates massive demand for DRAM. …
… Related Story PS6 Launch Timing Remains Undecided as Memory Shortages Persist; Sony Also Books $800M Bungie Impairment Loss Etron's Chairman claims that one of the reasons the DRAM supply chain has seen massive disruptions is that a few years ago, manufacturers weren't focusing on increasing produc… …
… Given that the entire world depends on chips from Taiwan, any emerging threat to industrial production will have a much larger impact on the AI industry. …
… But, before we dive into this, let's take a look at how TSMC plans to address the concerns around supply disruptions. First, the Taiwan chip giant is heavily expanding American production, shifting cutting-edge processes like 2nm way ahead of the original timeline. …
… However, in recent times, the role of NAND chips has become much more significant in AI workloads, and , as we have highlighted previously, SSDs are now used in mainstream AI racks such as Vera Rubin to handle long-context workloads . …
… While the goal certainly seems optimistic, it is also important to note that the NAND supply lines are already under massive pressure following demand for storage from CSPs and AI giants, and given that the AI SSD solution being discussed actually becomes mainstream, well, you could expect a DRAM-l… …