Raspberry Pi Launches Raspberry Pi Direct

Feb 1, 2022

Raspberry Pi is launching a new online storefront, Raspberry Pi Direct, specifically to sell bulk reels of their RP2040 microchips to customers. According to their press release, which comes on the one year anniversary of the Raspberry Pi Pico, "as RP2040 products begin to ramp to scale, and the global semiconductor shortage has transmuted most other microcontrollers into unobtainium, we've started to see people asking to buy tens of thousands of chips at a time."

This increase in demand from a portion of the customer base is the inspiration for Raspberry Pi Direct, which will allow customers to purchase bulk quantities of the microcontroller at a lower price per unit.

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A typical RP2040 costs $1 per unit through an approved Raspberry Pi reseller. Through Raspberry Pi Direct, customers have two options for buying the microcontroller in bulk.

Reel of 500 RP2040 chips at $0.80 per unit
Reel of 3,400 RP2040 chips at $0.70 per unit

This move by Raspberry Pi to provide greater accessibility to the RP2040 is a signal that, while there might be a global chip shortage, RPi is perfectly positioned to meet needs. According to their press release, Raspberry Pi is currently capable of producing up to 20 million chips.

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