Global chip supply chain under threat as US-Iran conflict enters third week — Strait of Hormuz blockade is days away from crippling Taiwan’s semiconductor indus

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Global chip supply chain under threat as US-Iran conflict enters third week — Strait of Hormuz blockade is days away from crippling Taiwan's semiconductor indus

Since helium can be procured from multiple sources, and local companies have said both the U.S. and Australia can help, it's less threatened by the ongoing conflict. Moreover, authorities have claimed that LNG and oil supplies are already secured for March, April, and half of May, with talks ongoing with America for June's inventory. However, in case of an emergency, Taiwan has only 11 days of LNG reserves.

That leaves it vulnerable to any sudden disruptions. Morgan Stanley estimated that a few weeks' worth of LNG is headed for the country on top of the existing stockpile, but Taiwan likely paid a significant premium for that. Even though the island has enough oil and helium for now, if the war were to escalate and (replacement) shipments were delayed or blocked for a long period, we might pay the price.

"Helium shortages could force chipmakers to prioritize production of higher-margin AI chips over less profitable components," said Bloomberg Economics analyst Michael Deng. TSMC manufactures all of Nvidia's GPUs, which include AI accelerators that populate most of the world's data centers. Those chips make the Green Team a lot more profit than consumer offerings like the RTX 50 series — so if push comes to shove, you know who's getting shoved.

That will, of course, worsen the already tight situation that was caused by the AI boom's insatiable appetite for silicon. Memory makers are already almost exclusively catering to AI clients , causing DDR5 prices to skyrocket, and even GPUs are more expensive now . The global supply chain is severely affected, and the ongoing conflict will only exacerbate that.

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  1. Global chip supply chain under threat as US-Iran conflict enters third week — Strait of Hormuz blockade is days away from crippling Taiwan’s semiconductor indus
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