Intel has a lot in the pipeline for 2022, and Pat Gelsinger hasn’t been shy about the company’s ambitions – especially when it comes to crushing Apple and AMD with its Alder Lake CPUs. However, while the blue team boss is optimistic about Intel’s future in the gaming PC space, he thinks that semiconductor shortages will persist beyond 2022.

In an interview with CNBC, Gelsinger claims that the component shortage will get “incrementally better” but says there won’t be a “supply-demand balance until 2023”. Like with a similar statement made by AMD’s Lisa Su, the Intel CEO doesn’t give a specific timeframe for when supply issues will subside. However, the fact that both company heads agree that the situation won’t resolve itself this year provides the forecast with some clout.

The ongoing global pandemic is somewhat to blame for disrupting semiconductor supplies, but events like China’s mandated industrial power shutdown also isn’t helping. Naturally, if global shortages continue, upcoming products like Intel’s Alder Lake lineup, Nvidia’s RTX 3080 refresh, and AMD’s Zen 4 processors could be in limited supply.

While it’s unclear how each company intends to deal with potential price increases and reseller stock hoarding, the situation could affect Intel’s plans to claim the gaming CPU crown and enter the desktop graphics fold. Of course, GPU supplies are also affected by an increase in crypto mining, so Intel might want to reconsider limiting the crypto performance on its upcoming Alchemist GPU if it wants to minimise the collective impact of all factors at play.