Long-Term Supply Deals Now ‘Essential’ in Chip Industry: Nvidia CFO

There’s no one in the semiconductor industry who’s “not focused on long-term supply” amid the chip crunch, Nvidia Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress told a Needham investor conference virtually Monday. “We continue to try and get more supply for the latest and greatest quarter, but at the same time we are procuring supply commitments for longer term.” In many cases, “they can be for a year out, some of the times they may be for multiple years out,” she said. “There's a wide range of different capacity agreements we've done,” including some for which “we have prepaid,” she said. The focus is on “helping our suppliers understand where we think demand may go,” she said. “The sheer volume of what we're seeing of folks needing to procure for the longer time is essential. Not everybody has all that perfect visibility on what may be needed.”