Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon reassured that the artificial intelligence (AI) boom will not trigger a global chip shortage similar to the one experienced during the pandemic. Speaking at the Web Summit in Lisbon, he attributed the 2020 crisis to an unexpected surge in consumer electronics demand, which overwhelmed supply chains, Bloomberg reported.
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AI Boom and Supply Chain Resilience
"It was good for the business, but the supply chain was not able to handle. Since then, a lot of investment has been made to increase the production capacity of chips. Today, demand and supplies are a hundred percent balanced within semiconductors," he said, according to the report.
Governments Boost Semiconductor Investments
Governments worldwide have ramped up semiconductor investments following the pandemic-induced shortages. Japan Prime Minister recently pledged over USD 65 billion to support its semiconductor and AI industries, aiming to compete with the US, EU, and China in securing semiconductor production.
Qualcomm's Positive Outlook
Qualcomm, the world's largest smartphone processor vendor, last week gave a bullish sales forecast for the current quarter. Amon reportedly said that demand for smartphone processors will continue to grow as users upgrade to more technically advanced phones that offer AI features.
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AI Processor Demand
"Users when they think about buying their next phone, they want to buy a better phone," Amon reportedly said at the conference on Tuesday. "We have seen that consistently and I expect that the capabilities of having processing of AI and AI use cases are actually going to continue to accelerate that trend."
