Luke Vargas

Plus another week, another partial government shutdown with no immediate end in sight.

And we'll dig into the strangest American winter in years.

It's Tuesday, February 17th.

I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal, and here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today.

A growing and acute shortage of memory chips is squeezing the makers of phones, laptops, and game consoles, sending consumer tech prices skyrocketing.

With AI demand gobbling up high-end semiconductors, our Korea bureau chief Tim Martin said that non-AI buyers are having to choose between raising prices, trimming margins, or reducing device memory.

And Tim told us that even some of the bigger tech companies won't be immune to the memory shortage.

Tim said that the current chip crunch does have parallels to pandemic-era shortages, but is likely to be more severe and longer-lasting.

The heart of the issue is chip manufacturing, with new factories or fabs being built, but just not quickly enough.

U.S.

memory chip maker Micron is rushing to add capacity.

It's spending $200 billion on factories in Idaho, New York, and Japan that'll open in 2028.

Meanwhile, NVIDIA supplier SK Hynix is also building new fabs in Indiana and South Korea, with two new factories opening this year.

The U.S.

government is emerging from the holiday weekend partially shut down.

And partially here means just the Department of Homeland Security.

Its immigration enforcement personnel are still working and getting paid, but not so for the TSA.

Staffers at the nation's airports can still log hours, but likely won't be compensated for that until after the shutdown is resolved.

And with the House and Senate on break this week, that could be a little while.

Lawmakers remain at odds over the terms of a DHS funding package, with Democrats mandating that ICE and CBP agents don body cameras, unmask, wear visible identification, and need warrants signed by a judge in order to enter homes.