Why AI and cryptocurrency are making a type of computer chip scarce

Two technology booms -- some people might call them frenzies -- are combining to turn a once-obscure type of microprocessor into a must-have but scarce commodity. Artificial-intelligence systems, made by companies ranging in size from Google to the Chinese startup Malong Technologies, rely heavily on a computer chip called a graphics processing unit, or GPU. The chips are also very useful in mining digital currencies like Ethereum, a bitcoin alternative riding the same wave of hype as its more famous cousin. With people and companies involved in the two surging tech niches buying up the same chips, GPUs have been in short supply over the past several months. Prices have increased by as much as 50 percent, according to some resellers and customers. "The chips are simply going out of stock," said Matt Scott, a technologist from the United States who founded Malong after leaving Microsoft's research lab in Beijing in 2014.