Beyond GPUs: AI-driven shortages hit chip materials and components - South China Morning Post

As artificial intelligence continues to advance, the semiconductor supply chain is facing unprecedented pressure. Recent price surges are no longer limited to GPUs and memory chips but have extended t... Read original →

The AI compute arms race is shifting semiconductor supply chain stress from chip design down to raw materials. Surging demand for high-density power delivery in AI servers has given Infineon and Murata unprecedented pricing power over power semiconductors and MLCCs. Technically, next-gen PCBs require ultra-pure glass fabric and copper-clad laminates, pushing suppliers like Kingboard to repeatedly raise prices as high-end capacity hits physical limits. On compliance, tightening export controls on helium and wafer fab constraints in Taiwan, China are delaying equipment deliveries. Strategically, TI and Yangjie are accelerating localized packaging alliances to bypass Japanese/Korean material dominance, while MediaTek’s cost pass-through reveals the fragility of fabless models under extreme imbalance. Over the next 18 months, upstream materials—not chips—will be the true bottleneck, with IDMs or regional material coalitions setting the new price equilibrium.