Taiyo Yuden is preparing to accelerate production of multilayer ceramic capacitors, or MLCCs, as AI servers and hyperscale data centers tighten supply across the global component market. But the Japanese supplier is resisting the kind of broad price increases now spreading through parts of the industry.
The global appetite for AI chips is putting new strain on materials suppliers, turning one of Ajinomoto's lesser-known products into a pressure point for advanced semiconductor packaging.
Samsung Electro-Mechanics (Semco) is rapidly gaining ground in the silicon capacitor market as AI infrastructure investment and technology upgrades accelerate demand. After landing its first major silicon capacitor order, the company is in talks with additional potential customers, while its multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCC) business is also expanding and operating profit is expected to hit a record high.
China has achieved mass production of ultra-pure silicon, according to the state-owned China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) — an essential material for building silicon-based quantum computers. The breakthrough builds on a government push to sharpen its quantum research edge and reduce its reliance on foreign technology supply chains more broadly.
TSMC is accelerating its advanced packaging roadmap for AI chips, expanding CoWoS capacity while publicly disclosing new progress in glass substrate technology. The company is also signaling that next-generation packaging competition is shifting from CoWoS toward CoPoS as it builds out a fuller ecosystem ahead of rivals.
China has recently eased controls on some indium phosphide (InP) substrates, relieving a bottleneck in optical communications capacity for the second half of the year. But supply chain players say the long-term priority is still to expand substrate capacity from non-China sources, with supply security for the AI industry outweighing price.
Walsin Technology expects the tight supply of passive components could last into 2028, as demand from AI infrastructure, automotive electronics, and future device upgrades lifts orders while memory shortages weigh on shipments across the broader electronics supply chain.
Wus Printed Circuit is pressing ahead with an AI-driven transformation, with its chairman and president outlining plans to move toward profitability as demand builds across high-performance computing and emerging technology markets.
China has allowed the release of a fresh supply of indium phosphide (InP) substrates, which are under export controls. A first 2026 batch shipped at the end of May following an earlier release in 2025, easing a capacity bottleneck in the optical communications market. Taiwanese compound semiconductor suppliers including Visual Photonics Epitaxy (VPEC) and Global Communication Semiconductors (GCS) are expected to benefit in the second half of 2026.
While artificial intelligence (AI) server orders remain robust, tight component supplies have raised concerns about shipments across the supply chain. Component makers say customer pull-ins for general-purpose servers have exceeded earlier expectations, mainly due to shortages of memory and CPUs. They estimate growth will return to its normal trajectory in the third quarter of 2026. Original design manufacturers (ODMs) have stated that component supply is indeed tight, and whether complete systems can be shipped depends on the specific server model.
LG Innotek plans to invest more than KRW1 trillion in a new semiconductor substrate plant in Haiphong, Vietnam, reflecting rising demand for substrates used in AI servers, 5G smartphones, and on-device AI chips. The expansion targets RF-SiP, FC-CSP, and FC-BGA substrates, as substrate suppliers adjust capacity plans to stronger demand from advanced mobile devices and AI infrastructure.
Chunghwa Leading Photonics Tech, a subsidiary of Chunghwa Telecom, is set to list on the Taipei Emerging Stock Board. The company has recorded record-high revenue and gross margin in the first four months of 2026, boosted by rising demand in Industry 5.0 applications, advanced semiconductor process inspection, and AI data center optical communication. With short-wave infrared (SWIR) transmissive automated optical inspection (AOI) testing demand set to grow as CoWoS advanced packaging capacity expands, the company is highly optimistic about its prospects for the second half of the year, noting that AI-related demand will likely continue through 2028–2029.
During a panel discussion between executives and research experts from Bosch, Infineon, Rohm Semiconductor, Nexperia, Wolfspeed, and Omdia at PCIM Europe 2026, one reality was made clear: frictionless, globalized chip manufacturing is ending. While the conversation reflected industry enthusiasm for new applications such as AI servers and industrial motor drives, it was tempered by macroeconomic realities of international trade protectionism, regional resilience mandates, and aggressive tariffs.
In power electronics engineering, Silicon Carbide (SiC) companies are competing to achieve the absolute lowest thermal resistance (Rth), with the mindset that lower heat signature equates a superior system. However, at PCIM Europe 2026, a collaborative project between Rohm Semiconductor, Schweizer Electronic, and eMoveUs GmbH exposed a revolutionary counter-intuitive shift in design philosophy: willingly accepting a localized thermal performance deficit to ultimately achieve dominant system-level advantages.
