President Joe Biden is taking steps to find solutions to the continuing scarcity of semiconductor chips – a manufacturing problem that has impacted, among other things, the newest game consoles.
The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on production has led to a shortage of semiconductors and other important products, affecting several industries in the United States and forcing many to reduce production.
Reuters reports that the president signed an executive order yesterday launching a 100-day review of supply chains for four essential products, including semiconductor chips.
Other products covered by the analysis include pharmaceuticals, rare earth minerals and large-capacity batteries for electric vehicles.
The order will focus on the areas of communication technology, transportation, energy, food production, public health and defense.
But the hope is that improvements in the supply of semiconductor chips could benefit the production of the PS5 and Xbox Series X | S, as well as cutting-edge graphics chips for PCs.
According to the Semiconductor Industry Association, U.S. semiconductor companies account for 47% of all chip sales worldwide – but only 12% of manufacturing is done in the USA.
The President also promised to seek significant investments in efforts to resolve this situation.
“I am instructing senior officials in my administration to work with industry leaders to identify solutions to the semiconductor deficit,” he said.
“Congress has authorized a bill, but they need … $ 37 billion to make sure we have that capacity. I’m going to push for that too.”
A recent report by Ampere Analysis suggested that supply restrictions prevented the new PlayStation and Xbox consoles from overtaking the launch sales of their predecessors.
Following Microsoft’s most recent financial results, chief financial officer Amy Hood said the company expects Xbox sales to “still be limited by supply” during the first quarter of 2021.