What’s Going On Here?TSMC – the world’s biggest contract chipmaker – reported better-than-expected earnings on Thursday, as shortage-bruised customers do whatever they can to get special treatment. What Does This Mean?It’s that age-old story: customer meets chipmaker, customer can’t get ahold of enough chips from chipmaker, customer offers to pay chipmaker in full up front to skip the line. So that very chipmaker – TSMC – saw its profit climb 14% higher last quarter than the same time last year, and it lifted its sales forecast for the rest of the year too. The company might’ve set its sights even higher, but it just can’t produce enough chips to keep up with the boom. It’ll hopefully be ready for next time, though: TSMC said it was setting aside $100 billion to boost its output over the next three years, and it has plans to build a new plant in Japan too. Why Should I Care?For markets: Apple isn’t looking forward to the holidays.
The demand from Apple alone has been too much for TSMC to handle, and it’s reportedly caused the tech giant to cut production of its latest iPhone by up to 10 million units. That, in the run-up to a festive season when Apple usually sees a big jump in demand for its products. That might be why investors sent the company’s share price down earlier this week, along with some of its other suppliers like Japan Display Inc and LG Innotek.
Zooming out: UPS and FedEx are taking on the Santa shift.
Shortages are everywhere right now, and the US is worried they’ll continue to push prices up across the board, slowing the country’s economic recovery. That might be why the government stepped in on Wednesday, securing pledges from logistics giants UPS and FedEx to up their working hours. That should help clear a backlog of orders ahead of the all-important holiday season, so the agreement might’ve come just in the Saint Nick of time. | 
