That's not what's happening. What's happening is that the $15 part now costs $150, and is only available from sketchy Asian brokers that aren't on anyone's list of approved vendors.
The semiconductor houses had better unfuck themselves SOON, or 2022 will go down in history next to 1929. I don't think anyone understands how serious this situation is getting.
Those older nodes "chairs" that the automotive industry used are less profitable in general. One doesn't simply spin down and spin up a semiconductor fabrication plant.
>> the supply chain disruption removed the chair the automotive industries had been sitting in before...
Replacing the (old) chair is easily in the billions of dollars. Not everyone can foot that kind of bill.
There is no excess capacity at fabs, so if someone buys their way to the front of the line, the fab is going to miss delivery dates on all the contracts it currently has.
Fabs do have that option, but it's going to cost an enormous amount. Automakers have to pay enough that the fab makes enough money to compensate for the loss of reputation (it won't be a secret that they let someone skip the line), even after subtracting any contractual fees brought about by missing delivery dates on other contracts. That's why you aren't paying slightly more, you're paying orders of magnitude more. I would also be unsurprised if everyone who can get in an order is paying a little extra to raise the contractual fees for missing a delivery date.
A single jumped order can make 100 other contracts deliver late. That's a lot of fees.