The Semiconductor Supply Shortage with Robert Quinn

The world's undergoing a serious chip shortage, and its having a negative impact on businesses everywhere.  

Automakers like Toyota are cutting their production forecasts by 40% based on the tightness of supply. Appliance makers like Whirlpool are claiming "the perfect storm" of supply issues have caused them to slash projections by around 10%. And Internet of Things providers like Synaptics are bringing in customers and quite literally begging to fulfill their existing customer orders.  

The extreme tightness of supply, coupled with the growing demand of high-performance chips, is serving as a catalyst of epic proportions. The semiconductor industry is undergoing one of the most significant expansion phases in decades. Intel, Samsung, Taiwan Semiconductor, and several other manufacturers are plowing tens of billions of dollars into expanding their chipmaking capacity.

What should investors make of all of this? Is this an opportunity to bank on a wave of upcoming new semiconductor business? Or is this simply too-much, too fast -- in what's already known as a highly cyclical industry?  

To answer those questions, we've brought in a semiconductor expert. Robert Quinn has worked for decades in providing capital equipment to the semiconductor industry. He is now a high-performance contributor to LinkedIn, where he posts four times per days and his articles have been read nearly 2 million times year-to-date.  

In this exclusive interview, 7investing CEO Simon Erickson and Robert describe why Intel is so ambitiously expanding its chipmaking capacity within the United States and what its new contract with the Department of Defense could mean for its business. Robert also explains why Samsung might be  building a new fab in Austin, what Taiwan Semiconductor's price hike will mean for consumer electronics, and how much longer investors should expect the supply shortage to last.

The two also discuss several new chip designs and process technology improvements, such as the RISC-V open-source architecture, single nanometer nodes, FGPAs, and quantum computing. Robert also shares his thoughts about wafer fabrication equipment manufacturers, and why the status quo will greatly benefit Applied Materials.  

Publicly-traded companies mentioned in this interview include AMD, Apple, Applied Materials, Intel, Samsung, and Taiwan Semiconductor. 7investing's advisors or its guests may have positions in the companies mentioned.