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What I (foolishly) hadn't realized until I saw it in EE Times the other day: the shortage is in parts built on older tech (e.g. larger feature size). These factories don't produce the high margin parts so investment in them has lagged.

Allegedly you can bring up a fab large node (still sub micron) in just 4-5 months -- there's a lot of surplus / used gear out there, but will anyone bother (try might not earn back your cap ex).

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Someone with the right background and contacts should put it together, I think the smart move there is to not only plan on selling chips into regular markets, but to get into talks with customers to become a guaranteed supplier that derisks correlated shortages from other sources.

One problem is the car companies have such razor thin margins that investing for them specifically is pretty bad. They are literally shaving pennies here and there on the backs of their suppliers, which reminds me of the (physical) toy and game business.

It’s no wonder there was inadequate response from their supply chain.

There is a reason penny wise and pound foolish is an enduring saying.

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