A surge in demand for artificial intelligence-focused semiconductors and AI-enabled smartphones and laptops could lead to the next global chip shortage, according to a report released Wednesday by consultancy Bain & Co. The last major semiconductor shortage happened during the Covid-19 pandemic amid supply chain disruption and a rise in demand for consumer electronics as people were forced to stay and work at home. Technology giants have been snapping up graphics processing units, or GPUs, mainly from Nvidia. These GPUs which are housed in data centers are critical for the training of huge AI models which underpin applications like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Meanwhile, companies like Qualcomm are designing chips that go into smartphones and personal computers and allow those devices to run AI applications locally rather than via an internet connection in the cloud. These are often referred to as AI-enabled devices and companies from Samsung to Microsoft have released such products. Bain said demand for GPUs and…
