Crazy! Do you have to draw lots to buy chips?

Amid the "chip shortage", some rare phenomena have also emerged in the electronics industry. For example, a media report recently said that an electronics retailer adopted a "lottery" method to sell Nvidia RTX 3000 graphics cards and AMD Ryzen 5000 CPUs, which have been in short supply recently.

It has to be said that for the electronic supply chain industry, the opening of 2021 is no less magical than that of 2020.

According to Cloud Headlines, on November 20, electronics retailer Newegg (hereinafter referred to as the retailer) temporarily released a "lottery sales" webpage (now invalid). The working principle of this system is that the retailer canceled the first-come, first-served sales method of goods, and changed it to a three-hour time window. For the in-demand products that consumers want to buy, they have the opportunity to participate in the lottery. The retailer will draw the winners on the same day and notify them by email. The winning consumers can complete the purchase within two hours, otherwise the reservation will be cancelled.

Image source: Cloud Headlines

Nvidia RTX 3000 graphics cards and AMD Ryzen 5000 CPUs, which were out of stock at most major retailers, were selected as the first products to be sold by the system.

In this event, there is another noteworthy thing about the "lottery" system: consumers cannot purchase Nvidia's RTX 3000 graphics cards or AMD Ryzen 5000 CPUs individually. They must purchase the RTX 3000 graphics cards or AMD CPUs that are in short supply as a combination product. In other words, if consumers buy these two products, they also need to "match" them - buy the bundled motherboard at the same time.

The retailer's event did not last long and was removed in the afternoon of the event. However, it stated to PCMag that the "lottery" system is designed to provide hot-selling products to real customers. The first "lottery" was mainly to collect and evaluate feedback, and the retailer will continue to offer sales of combination products and individual products in the future.

Once the sales method of "lottery" spread in the industry, it was controversial. Supporters believed that this could avoid scalpers and allow people who really needed the product to buy the right product; while opponents focused on the fact that the combination sales method increased the total price of the product.

But both parties have to admit that in the current environment, there are no more ways to obtain Nvidia RTX 3000 graphics cards or AMD Ryzen 5000 CPUs, because these two products are in short supply!

GPU and CPU are essential parts for computer assembly, and Nvidia and AMD are the world's major suppliers in this market. In fact, various series of Nvidia GPUs and AMD CPUs have been hot-selling in the market for some time.

On the one hand, amid the pandemic, the demand for working from home and online education has exploded, and the sales of desktop computers and notebooks have continued to rise. On the other hand, since November 2020, the price of Bitcoin has soared from around $10,000 to $20,000 on December 16, $30,000 on January 2, and $40,000 on January 8, with the highest price reaching $41,887.8, a nearly 10-fold increase from the lowest point of $4,944 on March 14.

Image source: Bitmain official website

As the price of Bitcoin soars, this round of Bitcoin market, which is regarded as a "bull market", has continued to its upstream Bitcoin mining machine industry. According to the official website of mining machine manufacturer Bitmain, all related Bitcoin mining machines are shown to be sold out, and the delivery time is August 2021. Mining machines have entered a situation where "one machine is hard to come by."

The hot sales of related computer products have greatly boosted the sales of Nvidia's GPU and AMD's CPU chips, but on the other end of the market, the product supply chain has encountered a "chip shortage."

In the normal supply process, Nvidia/AMD develops chips → wafer foundries produce chips → brand factories make CPU/GPU processors → agents are responsible for sales → consumers purchase. The whole process is done in one go.

However, under the influence of the epidemic in early 2020, the supply chain cycle of all industries was forced to be extended and backlogged accordingly. Earlier, the media disclosed that the demand in the electronics market has gradually recovered since the second half of the year. At present, the advanced chip processes below 10nm of TSMC and Samsung, the world's leading foundry companies, are close to full capacity, and the production capacity of mature processes is also in short supply. In addition, under the competition from rivals with huge shipments such as Qualcomm and Apple, the chip production capacity that Nvidia and AMD can obtain is very limited.

In addition, Nvidia and AMD have officially responded that their products have encountered problems with tight supply chains. In addition to insufficient wafers and silicon chips, some other reasons come from shortages of substrate materials and components.

For ordinary consumers, the reduction in product supply caused by chip shortages is not the only supply problem. The purchasing power of ordinary consumers is far less than that of mining machine manufacturers, and the purchasing competition they face is more intense. It is even more difficult to obtain ideal GPU and CPU processors. Under such circumstances, it is no wonder that some retailers and platforms have unprecedentedly adopted "lottery" as one of the ways to sell products.

In fact, consumers' "lottery" to buy CPU/GPU essentially reflects the severity of the "chip shortage" problem in the supply chain. From the perspective of the supply chain, this phenomenon is not what everyone wants to see, but it is undeniable that the chip shortage is gradually spreading from the upstream.

Similar actions have been taken on other domestic e-commerce platforms. Due to the tight supply of high-end chips used in Huawei mobile phones, Huawei's official flagship store on JD.com has changed the original sales model of Mate 40 RS since the end of 2020. Consumers need to draw lots to buy the Mate 40 RS with Kirin 9000 chip. From the purchase interface, if you want to buy this phone, you need to go through the three processes of appointment-drawing-snatching.

Image source: Huawei JD official flagship store

In the current situation of "chip shortage", is this "lottery" sales model a flash in the pan, or will it continue to appear? What do you think about this? Welcome to leave a message in the comment area to discuss.

Amid the "chip shortage", some rare phenomena have also emerged in the electronics industry. For example, a media report recently said that an electronics retailer adopted a "lottery" method to sell Nvidia RTX 3000 graphics cards and AMD Ryzen 5000 CPUs, which have been in short supply recently.

It has to be said that for the electronic supply chain industry, the opening of 2021 is no less magical than that of 2020.

According to Cloud Headlines, on November 20, electronics retailer Newegg (hereinafter referred to as the retailer) temporarily released a "lottery sales" webpage (now invalid). The working principle of this system is that the retailer canceled the first-come, first-served sales method of goods, and changed it to a three-hour time window. For the in-demand products that consumers want to buy, they have the opportunity to participate in the lottery. The retailer will draw the winners on the same day and notify them by email. The winning consumers can complete the purchase within two hours, otherwise the reservation will be cancelled.

Image source: Cloud Headlines

Nvidia RTX 3000 graphics cards and AMD Ryzen 5000 CPUs, which were out of stock at most major retailers, were selected as the first products to be sold by the system.

In this event, there is another noteworthy thing about the "lottery" system: consumers cannot purchase Nvidia's RTX 3000 graphics cards or AMD Ryzen 5000 CPUs individually. They must purchase the RTX 3000 graphics cards or AMD CPUs that are in short supply as a combination product. In other words, if consumers buy these two products, they also need to "match" them - buy the bundled motherboard at the same time.

The retailer's event did not last long and was removed in the afternoon of the event. However, it stated to PCMag that the "lottery" system is designed to provide hot-selling products to real customers. The first "lottery" was mainly to collect and evaluate feedback, and the retailer will continue to offer sales of combination products and individual products in the future.

Once the sales method of "lottery" spread in the industry, it was controversial. Supporters believed that this could avoid scalpers and allow people who really needed the product to buy the right product; while opponents focused on the fact that the combination sales method increased the total price of the product.

But both parties have to admit that in the current environment, there are no more ways to obtain Nvidia RTX 3000 graphics cards or AMD Ryzen 5000 CPUs, because these two products are in short supply!

GPU and CPU are essential parts for computer assembly, and Nvidia and AMD are the world's major suppliers in this market. In fact, various series of Nvidia GPUs and AMD CPUs have been hot-selling in the market for some time.

On the one hand, amid the pandemic, the demand for working from home and online education has exploded, and the sales of desktop computers and notebooks have continued to rise. On the other hand, since November 2020, the price of Bitcoin has soared from around $10,000 to $20,000 on December 16, $30,000 on January 2, and $40,000 on January 8, with the highest price reaching $41,887.8, a nearly 10-fold increase from the lowest point of $4,944 on March 14.

Image source: Bitmain official website

As the price of Bitcoin soars, this round of Bitcoin market, which is regarded as a "bull market", has continued to its upstream Bitcoin mining machine industry. According to the official website of mining machine manufacturer Bitmain, all related Bitcoin mining machines are shown to be sold out, and the delivery time is August 2021. Mining machines have entered a situation where "one machine is hard to come by."

The hot sales of related computer products have greatly boosted the sales of Nvidia's GPU and AMD's CPU chips, but on the other end of the market, the product supply chain has encountered a "chip shortage."

In the normal supply process, Nvidia/AMD develops chips → wafer foundries produce chips → brand factories make CPU/GPU processors → agents are responsible for sales → consumers purchase. The whole process is done in one go.

However, under the influence of the epidemic in early 2020, the supply chain cycle of all industries was forced to be extended and backlogged accordingly. Earlier, the media disclosed that the demand in the electronics market has gradually recovered since the second half of the year. At present, the advanced chip processes below 10nm of TSMC and Samsung, the world's leading foundry companies, are close to full capacity, and the production capacity of mature processes is also in short supply. In addition, under the competition from rivals with huge shipments such as Qualcomm and Apple, the chip production capacity that Nvidia and AMD can obtain is very limited.

In addition, Nvidia and AMD have officially responded that their products have encountered problems with tight supply chains. In addition to insufficient wafers and silicon chips, some other reasons come from shortages of substrate materials and components.

For ordinary consumers, the reduction in product supply caused by chip shortages is not the only supply problem. The purchasing power of ordinary consumers is far less than that of mining machine manufacturers, and the purchasing competition they face is more intense. It is even more difficult to obtain ideal GPU and CPU processors. Under such circumstances, it is no wonder that some retailers and platforms have unprecedentedly adopted "lottery" as one of the ways to sell products.

In fact, consumers' "lottery" to buy CPU/GPU essentially reflects the severity of the "chip shortage" problem in the supply chain. From the perspective of the supply chain, this phenomenon is not what everyone wants to see, but it is undeniable that the chip shortage is gradually spreading from the upstream.

Similar actions have been taken on other domestic e-commerce platforms. Due to the tight supply of high-end chips used in Huawei mobile phones, Huawei's official flagship store on JD.com has changed the original sales model of Mate 40 RS since the end of 2020. Consumers need to draw lots to buy the Mate 40 RS with Kirin 9000 chip. From the purchase interface, if you want to buy this phone, you need to go through the three processes of appointment-drawing-snatching.

Image source: Huawei JD official flagship store

In the current situation of "chip shortage", is this "lottery" sales model a flash in the pan, or will it continue to appear? What do you think about this? Welcome to leave a message in the comment area to discuss.