Taiwan just claimed the throne in substrate manufacturing — now 35.6% of global share vs Korea's 27.9% and Japan's 22.7%. On advanced ABF substrates alone, Taiwan controls 41.3%.
Q2 2026 Taiwan PCB output hit NT$279.1B, up 27.9% YoY. Substrates surged 36.7% driven by AI servers, HPC, and high-speed networking — tight supply met rising prices.
Why the jump? Bigger GPU, ASIC, and switch dies demand larger, thicker ABF substrates with longer production cycles. Yield constraints, material limits, and qualification bottlenecks slow new capacity. That's why value growth outpaced area growth.
HDI boards up 28.4% on AI servers, LEO satellites, and automotive — phones and PCs still weak. Multilayer boards exploded 47.6% on high-layer, high-speed demand for servers, networking, memory modules. Flex PCBs barely moved at +1.3%, though AI glasses are starting to nibble.
The supply chain is shifting. Taiwan's substrate dominance isn't just about volume — it's about controlling the choke points in next-gen compute infrastructure.
Q2 2026 Taiwan PCB output hit NT$279.1B, up 27.9% YoY. Substrates surged 36.7% driven by AI servers, HPC, and high-speed networking — tight supply met rising prices.
Why the jump? Bigger GPU, ASIC, and switch dies demand larger, thicker ABF substrates with longer production cycles. Yield constraints, material limits, and qualification bottlenecks slow new capacity. That's why value growth outpaced area growth.
HDI boards up 28.4% on AI servers, LEO satellites, and automotive — phones and PCs still weak. Multilayer boards exploded 47.6% on high-layer, high-speed demand for servers, networking, memory modules. Flex PCBs barely moved at +1.3%, though AI glasses are starting to nibble.
The supply chain is shifting. Taiwan's substrate dominance isn't just about volume — it's about controlling the choke points in next-gen compute infrastructure.
