Chips will remain scarce for consoles and processors into 2024, Intel CEO predicts

The global chip and semiconductor shortage bottlenecking everything from consoles to graphics cards will continue into 2024, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger predicts. 

As VGC spotted, Gelsinger discussed the state of the processor market in a recent interview with CNBC. Ironically, Gelsinger reckons that because the chip shortage is now more prominently limiting the production of the machines and tools necessary to manufacture more chips, the overall supply will continue to drag behind demand even as companies like Intel try to make more of the things. 

"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. 

It's easy to forget that these sorts of chips go into more than hobbyist electronics like new-gen consoles, graphics cards, and CPUs, though those markets have definitely felt the semiconductor shortage especially keenly. Our increasingly digital world runs on chips, and that includes chip factories. Ramping up chip production to meet increasing demand might sound like an obvious solution, but you need chips for that too, which can further divide the already limited supply and hit the pricing and availability of other components with a knock-on effect. 

Intel's not the only company navigating these particular rapids, of course, nor is it tied to the new-gen console market as closely as AMD, which provides the custom Zen 2 processors at the heart of the PS5 and Xbox Series X. But semiconductors are an industry-wide commodity, and as a key chip manufacturer and market figure, Intel's forecasts do hold plenty of weight. It's also worth noting that Gelsinger's revised his previous position that the chip shortage would only bleed into 2023, which seems to be the largely pessimistic tone of the industry in general right now. 

AMD CEO Lisa Su previously predicted that the chip shortage may improve in the second half of 2022, but recent months haven't been especially kind to the semiconductor market.