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Donald Trump — Cause of the IC Shortage

TSMC chief executive C.C. Wei said that clients’ rush to stockpile chips was the product of geopolitical tensions, “creating short-term imbalance in the supply chain”. Moves by former US president Donald Trump forced companies to switch from “just-in-time” inventory of minimum stocks to stockpiling, creating a vicious cycle – the bigger the stockpile, the tighter the supply.  Add to that the pandemic, the complex nature of the automotive supply chain as well as the capital-intensive reality of chip manufacturing, and there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight.