EDGE

Nanya PCB (8046), leveraging Formosa Plastics Group's vertical integration, once led network communication substrates. Despite a painful "yield wall" in early AI GPU substrates, management quickly stemmed losses, heavily investing in a new Shulin plant for high-end HPC. Nanya PCB launched a diffe...

Unimicron, global AI capacity leader, saw AI HDI lines turn profitable early. It leveraged T-Glass shortages to regain pricing power, restarting "capacity reservation fees." Unimicron upholds capital discipline, de-bottlenecking for cash flow, and secretly develops ultimate large organic substrat...

AI chip heat warps ABF substrates; industry eyes glass (flatness, rigidity, thermal stability for trillion-transistor). LIDE/chemical etching solves TGV fragility. Intel seeks revenge; SK builds mass plant; Unimicron test-produces, sparking 2027 materials war.

Ibiden & Shinko, tied to Intel, monopolized high-end ABF. Amid AI surge, both adopted strategies. Ibiden invests JPY 500B in AI ASIC/EMIB-T; clients prepay. Shinko, privatized/delisted by a Japan gov consortium, avoids reporting pressure, focusing on next-gen substrate capital drain, defending se...

Kinsus (3189) initially dominated BT substrates and had a contact lens cash cow. Now, flush with cash, it enters AI; ABF capacity hits 85% off-season. Amid material gaps, Kinsus began 3-5% quarterly price hikes, approved Fab 6 high-end expansion, targeting GPU/ASIC/high-end networking, using a du...

ABF film, the core IC substrate insulator, is monopolized by Japan's Ajinomoto. Its thin, insulative, laser-drillable properties make it the industry standard. Substrate manufacturing involves lamination cycles (film, drilling, plating), like building a layered cake. However, chips like NVIDIA B2...