Agreed, "earlier this year" is vague - but it wasn't ME who said that. It was Kelly Whelan, Keith Nalepka, and Richard Staelin in their August 15 update.
See post 295952 by The_Pro and post 295958 by srinsocal for the exact quote:
Earlier in the year, we stabilized our supply chain by pro-actively ordering a year’s supply of the essential ASIC chips.