Around the world, sales of high-tech products are booming, but supply is struggling to keep up. This is a well-known fact. We've seen pre-built PCs shipped without GPUs, watched TSMC, one of the world's leading semiconductor manufacturers, battle "red alert" level droughts across Taiwan, and witnessed manufacturers trying every way possible to alleviate the GPU shortage.

It has been a big deal, to say the least. However, according to Acer representatives, the shortage could be alleviated by late 2021.

In an interview with reporters in Taipei (via Reuters), Andrew Hou, president of Acer's pan-Asia Pacific operations, noted that the problem became apparent around the end of last year. He explained that since then, supply workers have "jumped into action," but admitted that he expected this quick action to yield better results in the second quarter compared to the first quarter of this year.

However, the way things are shaping up, Hou is confident that we will see a significant improvement on the supply side in the second half of the year.

This follows comments made by Jason Chen, Acer's chairman and CEO, to reporters (via NikkeiAsia). However, despite the struggles, Chen noted that this situation is a "happy problem" for Acer.

The manufacturer may not be keeping up with demand, but that does not mean it has gone bankrupt; according to IDC statistics, Acer's shipments grew by a whopping 23% last year, and that figure is expected to continue to grow.

To meet the expected steady increase in demand, TSMC, a leader in chip manufacturing, now plans to invest $100 billion in semiconductor production capacity over the next few years. And the trend is spreading throughout the industry, with GLOBALFOUNDRIES planning to invest $1.5 billion to further expand its wafer production capacity.

With such large sums of money flying around, it is no wonder that Hou has a positive outlook for the future. There is no doubt that manufacturers have learned from this supply shortage and are taking steps to ensure that such a shortage never occurs again.