AI servers are even snapping up circuit boards: HP and Dell fear supply shortages by 2027, while Amazon directly invests in board manufacturers.

Beating AI News Flash: The shortage list driven by the AI boom has expanded from GPUs and memory to circuit boards. HP and Dell, while planning their 2027 supply chains, discovered that even the once-unremarkable PCB (printed circuit board) could face shortages.

In September of this year, Amazon invested approximately NT$1.59 billion to acquire a stake in Taiwanese PCB manufacturer Gold Circuit Electronics, transitioning from customer to shareholder.

AI servers require circuit boards with more layers and lower signal loss, and chip packaging substrates are also growing larger, driving a surge in demand for key materials such as specialty glass fiber cloth and copper-clad laminates. Suppliers are prioritizing higher-margin AI orders, squeezing ordinary servers as well. Lead times for some ordinary server PCBs have approached one year.

However, production capacity for key materials is unlikely to keep up with demand in the short term. TrendForce estimates that Japan's Nitto Boseki controls about 90% of the global T-glass specialty glass fiber cloth market, with new capacity not expected to come online until mid-2027 at the earliest. On October 20, the chairman of Taiwanese substrate giant Unimicron warned that some key materials could face a shortage of about 20% in 2027, and lead times for some chip substrate production equipment could be as long as 30 months.