Some of the old microchips from washing machines can also be used for other devices, which is why a large company is probably buying them up.
The semiconductor crisis is still in full swing and many companies are feeling the consequences. Gamers also had to struggle with overpriced graphics cards for a long time because the manufacturers could not produce at full capacity. While the situation with GPUs is slowly improving, things are apparently even worse in other areas.
At least that’s what the CEO of ASML Peter Winnick suggests. He left in the quarterly financial conference
Winnick said one company is buying washing machines to take out the microchips and use them in their own products. He does not reveal exactly who is meant. Winnick only speaks of a very large industrial company
i.e. a very large industrial company.
He further says: It’s all driven by IoT type applications
. The demand for the chips is therefore driven by the Internet of Things. That’s basically all of them smarten
Washing machines against production bottlenecks
The motto here seems to be: If necessary, it’s better to buy a washing machine with a chip than not having a chip at all. In this way, companies can avoid potential bottlenecks in production.
In addition, Winnick says that companies would even ask for semiconductor technology that is up to 25 years old. So it may well be that they use old and disused devices.
How long the semiconductor crisis will continue is uncertain. However, semiconductor manufacturers have been working to increase production since the beginning of the crisis. The EU also wants to advance the local microchip market with a plan worth billions:
Way out of the graphics card crisis? The EU’s billion-euro plan could help us players
It remains to be seen when the effects of the EU plan will become apparent. But it is definitely long-term. According to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, at least 20 percent of the world’s microchips are to be produced in the EU by 2030.
