The computer chip shortage is a big problem. You have 3 major companies with fabs setup making them Samsung, TSMC & Global foundries they run their fabs at about 80% capacity which is the highest to prevent losses etc due time cleaning down, human error etc.
The car industry operates largely on just in time practices so they don’t have huge amounts if stock on hand. So they have Standing orders for a volume of chips, typically when they need more they ask the fab to make more & isn’t a problem BUT right now due to companies like AMD releasing new cpu’s & graphics chips from AMD & Nvidia coupled with 2 new consoles from MS & Sony add on a pandemic & you’ve got a perfect storm.
This coupled with shipping issues is why you can’t buy a cpu, graphics card, games console etc. Plus due to shut downs there’s now shortages showing up of the substrate that chipmakers use.
There’s a shortage of high grade silica (sand) used to make chips.
You also have Intel the other big cpu manufacturer altho they have their own fabs they haven’t managed to shrink their manufacturing process below 14nm (others are now pushing 5nm 3 generations better) because if this they’re moving to get their cpu’s made at TSMC which will push shortages & demand higher still.
So build more fabs I hear you say, well a new fab costs about $3-4bn with TSMC estimating their next gen fab will cost $20bn to build.
Sadly chip shortages are not likely to go away soon unless car manufacturers obtain better contracts for more capacity all year round & not on JIT