For two decades the fab was the constraint and packaging was a cost line. That inverted. Die are being produced faster than they can be stacked, tested and shipped as parts, and the tier where the queue now sits is barely mentioned in the disclosure of any company in it.
The reason is qualification. A line running one stack configuration cannot absorb demand for a different one without a requalification measured in quarters, so the tier can hold idle capacity and a queue at the same time — and reports both as utilisation.
If tier 5 stops for a quarter
Die accumulate as inventory that cannot be recognised. Tier 6 reports the shortage as a component issue. Tier 7 revises deployment schedules and calls it timing. The tier where it happened reports a strong quarter. Incidence lands three tiers from the cause, which is the general case rather than the exception.
Compute operator A
7
Buys systems; the delivery date is set two tiers below by packaging slots it does not contract for
No
Systems integrator B
6
Holds die allocation, no packaging allocation. Revenue recognition waits on test capacity
Partial
Fabless designer C
4→5
Names its foundry dependency; not the packaging line, nor the substrate supplier behind it
Partial
Equipment vendor D
3
Sells into the narrow tier; its own optics supply is a single chain three steps long
Yes
Industrial gas supplier E
1
Recovery volumes track steel output, not chip demand. Two customers absorb most of the grade
Yes
Insurer F, property book
4
Aggregation risk: several policies resolve to the same industrial park and the same substation
No
Series read for this chain
Shipment licence dockets ASubstrate imports ACleanroom permits ASite power draw BLine hiring composition COptical build passes C
Registry entry for each →Chain revisions
—
Binding tier moved 4 → 5 after packaged output diverged for two quarters
—
Tier 2 node count raised; a second qualified resist supplier appeared in customs records
—
Substitution at tier 3 restated past 60 months on precedent from an earlier tool generation