The median inventory of chips at chip-reliant US companies fell to less than five days in 2021 as stocks fell to precarious levels, from around 40 days pre-pandemic according to the US Commerce Department. The thin inventories are of concern as a single shutdown or delay in any company could result in disruptions along the supply chain, leading the Commerce Department to push for the approval of the Innovation and Competition Act, which includes USD 52 bn to boost domestic chip production. Hyundai had said earlier this week that the company expects an increase in semiconductor supply in 2Q2022.

Heirs of iconic Spanish artist Pablo Picasso are selling his art as NFTs, the Associated Press. The family will sell 1,010 digital art pieces of one of his ceramic works that had been hidden away from the public eye as a family heirloom at a Sotheby’s auction in March that will include a unique NFT as well as the actual ceramic bowl that dates back to 1958. The NFTs will also come with music put together by his great-grandson Florian Picasso, who is a DJ and music producer, along with songwriter John Legend and rapper Nas.

Disney+ is coming to Egypt this summer, when the streaming service is expected to launch in 42 new countries and 11 territories, according to a statement (pdf). The streaming service will bring its “exclusive content and thousands of episodes and movies from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic and general entertainment from Star” to 16 MENA countries, as well as a handful of other nations in Europe and Africa.

YOUR MANDATORY COVID UPDATE- The next variant will likely be even more contagious than omicron, with covid expected to continue mutating before settling into a pattern WHO officials said yesterday (watch, runtime: 54:42). It’s still not clear, however, whether the next iteration of the virus will be more deadly, although it will likely evade vaccine protections, the officials said. Eventually, covid could become endemic, turning into a virus that is seasonal or only affects vulnerable groups, with occasional flare-ups.

Hopefully we can get omicron under control first with a new omicron-specific jab: Pfizer and BioNTech have started clinical trials of a new omicron-specific vaccine, testing it as a booster jab as well as three separate shots in unvaccinated people, according to a press release. The vaccine race is on, as Moderna is planning to begin trials of its own omicron-specific shot soon while Oxford University and AstraZeneca have also started working on a new version of their vaccine, writes the BBC.