Not mentioned in the article: almost all semiconductors used outside of computers and cell phones are produced on old processes - 40nm and up. Fabs for these are cheap - maybe in the $1 billion range - but no one builds them because of low profit margins. Instead these mostly get built in fabs that used to be cutting-edge, long ago.

Maybe the automakers could pay a little bit more for these chips, and it would become profitable to build fabs for them again. But everyone knows that the moment people forget the semiconductor shortage, automakers will try to drive the profit on those chips back to zero again, and whoever built one of those fabs will be left holding the bag. Basically the automakers and/or Wall Street would rather forgo the sale of an entire car than pay a buck or two in profit to someone else for the chips that go into that car.

The best term I've heard for something like this is "end-stage capitalism".