Is A Lack Of New Chips Being Caused By Artificial Intelligence?

Western Digital and Seagate, the two leading hard drive manufacturers, have already sold out most of their 2026 chip inventory, Heise Online reports. Counterpoint Research reports that the price of memory chips increased by 90 percent between the fourth quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026. As a result, Dell has increased the prices of its computers by 15 to 20 percent, and Lenovo is expected to raise prices as well, TrendForce News reports.

The chip industry is once again under great pressure after a major crisis during the coronavirus pandemic, and this time the generator is the growing artificial intelligence sector, which requires large amounts of hardware. The automotive industry has learned from experience and understands that a reduction in the supply of memory chips is bad news.

“DRAM shortages will continue across the electronics, telecom, and automotive industries throughout the year. We are already seeing signs of panic buying within the automotive sector, while smartphone makers are turning to more cost-effective chip alternatives to mitigate the impact,” Counterpoint analyst MS Hwang told Bloomberg.

It seems that Tesla CEO and co-owner Elon Musk is launching a chip manufacturing company to mitigate the impact of market disruptions. Are we in for another car shortage? Time will tell, very soon…

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