“I've said this before, there's no such thing as a one-quarter problem. And so a data center comes along and says, hey, we're pushing out our stuff by a quarter. Then it compounds.”
The Circuit · Tech Strategy & Big Tech · October 2026
Context
Goldberg and Bajarin on whether the AI hardware supply chain can hold its timelines. Bajarin says builders will keep ordering so they don't lose allocation to a competitor; Goldberg warns that not everything will stay sold out next year, and one delay ripples down the chain.
Transcript
…certainly they've all become very, very good at this. The issue is more around random, unpredictable things, which is to your point that are just beyond anybody's control. So the timelines I think are very, very clear, but there are still quite a number of X factors somewhere along the supply chain
…again, if you're the vendor, do you not order something? Or do you order something? Because you know you need it. You order to what you need. And sure, you have to wait to install it or whatnot, but you're not going to not order it. You don't want to lose that allocation to a competitor, right?
Yeah, I think that's the way it is. Certainly the way it was last year and probably right now. I don't know that we'll be there in a year. Right. I just, I think there is a risk that things aren't, like, certain things will be sold out, but other things might not be. And so I think there is a risk that we do see a one, you know, I've said this before, there's no such thing as a one-quarter problem. And so a data center comes along and says, hey, we're pushing out our stuff by a quarter. Then it compounds.
Yeah.
Then, you know, some then the ODM has to say, oh, it's, you know, it compounds and the ODM is pushing things out and then they're pushing things out to their suppliers. Like I could see it rippling through. And I think if this had happened, if there's this kind of delay had happened six months ago…
Right. Right.
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