Nvidia’s RTX 3000 graphics card shortage may persist past the holiday season and into the first months of the new year.
On Wednesday, Nvidia Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress indicated production of the new graphics cards remains tight as consumer demand for the products has far exceeded the company’s own expectations. “Given industry-wide capacity constraints and long cycle times, it may take a few more months for product availability to catch up with demand,” she said in an earnings call with investors.
On Oct. 5, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said he expected demand for the RTX 3000 cards to outstrip supplies through the rest of 2020. A month and a half later, the problem persists.
On Wednesday’s earnings call, Huang said RTX 3000 manufacturing has been “one of the fastest ramps ever" for the company. However, customer demand has been overwhelming.
As a result, the company’s near-term financial growth may be capped due to the manufacturing supply constraints. “We would appreciate shorter cycle times. We would appreciate more agile supply chains. But you know the world is constrained at the moment. And so, we just have to make the best of it,” Huang said.
In the meantime, the RTX 3000 cards have remained largely out of stock at major retailers. New supplies have only been trickling in gradually, according to one retailer in Europe, which has kept a running tally of all the RTX 3000 units it’s received. To obtain the cards immediately, resellers on eBay have been hawking the products, but at double their retail price.