China lockdowns and the Russia-Ukraine war have further pushed the ongoing global semiconductor shortage to at least 2024, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has warned. Gelsinger told investors during the company's first quarter (Q1) earnings call on Thursday that Intel is rising to meet this challenge. "In the supply chain, lockdowns in Shanghai and the war in Ukraine have demonstrated more than ever that the world needs more resilient and more geographically balanced semiconductor manufacturing," he said. The chip shortage cost the US economy $240 billion last year. "We expect the industry will continue to see challenges until at least 2024 in areas like foundry capacity and tool availability," Gelsinger told the analysts.
The chip-maker registered record quarterly revenue at $18.4 billion in the first quarter, slightly exceeding its guidance. Its net income skyrocketed by 141 per cent to $8 billion. Gelsinger said that the company continues to see some softening in low-end consumer PCs, and some inventory adjustments. "But overall, the demand signals from customers continue to be robust in areas like enterprise, cloud, AI, graphics, and networking. Semiconductors are the fuel of innovation and transformation across a wide range of industries," he explained. Intel recently announced a series of investments in the US and Europe. "These investments position Intel to meet the future growth and represent a significant step toward our moonshot goal of having half the world's semiconductor manufacturing located in the US and Europe," said the chip-maker.