Computer Chips Face Toilet Paper Hoarding Moment as Shortage Turns to Glut

Computer Chips Face Toilet Paper Hoarding Moment as Shortage Turns to Glut
Micron Technology's solid-state drive for data center customers at a product launch event in San Francisco on Oct. 24, 2019. Stephen Nellis/Reuters
|Updated:

OAKLAND, Calif.—A supply chain crisis triggered by the global pandemic deprived makers of PCs and smartphones to cars of computer chips needed to make their products.

All that suddenly changed over three weeks from late May to June, as high inflation, China’s latest COVID lockdown, and the war in Ukraine dampened consumer spending, especially on PCs and smartphones.