Is that hardware you ordered taking longer than expected to get to you? You’re not alone. Chip shortages and shipping delays have hit nearly every industry worldwide, especially tech and VFX studies are no exception.
The reasons are many: There’s currently a chip shortage due to heavy demand, especially in networking hardware, game consoles and consumer electronics. Covid-19 also had a severe impact, especially in high-tech manufacturing hubs such as Malaysia, where the Delta variant shuttered factories.
There’s also a massive demand for GPUs which predates Covid due to cryptomining. Millions of cryptocurrency enthusiasts hoping to jump on the bandwagon have emptied stocks of powerful graphic chips typically used for high-end VFX work. This year’s release of new Playstation and Xbox models have also cramped the supply. The demand for all of the above has also created an ideal market for scalpers, who buy as many GPUs as possible in the hopes of reselling them at grossly inflated prices.
The issue hasn’t just been one of scarcity and demand for hardware either. A massive backlog of container ships on the West Coast has slowed down the shipments of virtually every kind of product being sent over the Pacific Ocean, especially from China.
To further complicate matters there’s also massive backlogs and delays in the U.S. Postal Service,
And if all that isn’t enough, there’s a shortage of truck drivers across the country, with 80,000 jobs currently unfilled.
There isn’t really an upside or secret way to get around any of the above issues; it’s largely a matter, as the saying goes, of “hurry up and wait.”