Chip shortages leave prices high, supply low

Cristian Hernandez, Staff Writer

COVID has affected society in numerous ways. Among the abundance of issues, a shortage of computer chips has caused. 

The Wolf interviewed Rodrigo Ojeda, a student at Tualatin High School who is very knowledgeable about technology and has built computers in his free time. He shared his perspective on this topic.

“I’ve definitely seen fluctuation,” Ojeda said. “Because of the pandemic, many people had to  work or go to school at home and had to buy a computer in order to work. Not many people know when this [chip shortage] will end.”

 This high demand with low supply has caused products that use semiconductor chips to skyrocket in price, including cars, computers and gaming consoles. 

“It has affected me by me not [being] able to buy certain computer components like a GPU, which is a necessity for a computer,” Ojeda said. “It’s nearly impossible to buy one at MSRP, and many people are reselling for double the price, which is a major problem for people like me that intend to use it the way it’s supposed to be used and not just for profit.”

Part of this demand change is the increase in remote work and remote learning due to COVID, requiring people to purchase more computers. 

“Seeing everyone go online for work and school, I already knew prices were going to go up due to the amount of demand all at once and the fact that factories would close down,” Ojeda said. “I believe that iIt will continue post-pandemic, but many chip manufacturers are planning to build new factories to combat the shortage by 2023. Hopefully, it will slow down by the end of this year.”

After reaching out to someone who has firsthand experience with this chip shortage, it is prevelant that regular people have been having a hard time accessing certain computer parts due to COVID, which halted a large amount of production when demand increased.