How tiny capacitors became the latest AI-driven investor darling
How tiny capacitors became the latest AI-driven investor darling
Publish Date: 2026-05-19 23:22:00
Source Domain: www.scmp.com
- The demand for multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) is experiencing a surge due to the artificial intelligence boom and its new production requirements.
- MLCCs serve as crucial electrical buffers in circuit boards, and their usage is expanding significantly in high-performance servers driven by AI.
- The AI hardware boom has created a bottleneck in production capacity, with MLCC manufacturers focusing on high-end supply for data centres, leading to increased prices.
- Next-generation AI hardware like Nvidia’s Rubin architecture requires considerably more MLCC units – increasing from 6,500 on current platforms to 12,000 on the advanced model.
- AI servers consume up to 10 times more power than traditional servers and require up to 28,000 MLCCs per unit, marking a 13-fold increase compared to standard server setups.
- The MLCC industry is forecasted to experience explosive growth, potentially mirroring the growth seen in the optical module sector.
- The global MLCC market is currently dominated by Japanese and South Korean manufacturers like Murata Manufacturing and Samsung Electro-Mechanics (SEMCO), especially for high-end AI server capacitors.
