AI Boom Leaves PC Manufacturers Without Printed Circuit Boards: Material Queues Extend to 2030

The AI industry continues to absorb production capacities that were previously used for manufacturing PCs, smartphones, and other electronics. In 2026, the market already faced a sharp increase in the prices of RAM, graphics cards, and SSDs, and now printed circuit boards (PCBs) are joining the list. Nikkei Asia reported this, citing executives from major PC and board manufacturers: in the coming months, the market faces a shortage of both the boards themselves and the materials for their production, along with rising prices.

An executive from an American PC manufacturer, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the situation as follows: "Despite the fact that PC shipments may decline again next year, we still struggle to secure the necessary volume of printed circuit boards." Several sources linked the problem to AI computing demands, which are consuming available capacities.

Server boards for AI accelerators contain dozens of layers, occupy a large area, and require materials with low dielectric losses: one such board takes significantly more resources from the factory than a laptop motherboard. One manufacturer reported that lead times for a significant portion of products have doubled, and some items have to be waited for up to 30 months. According to another supplier, an order placed today will not be fulfilled until the end of 2028.

Key materials include copper-clad laminates (CCL) and special fiberglass. According to one Taiwanese PC manufacturer, since July, the cost of CCL has increased at least 12 times. One of the world's largest laminate suppliers told Nikkei that its order book is filled until 2030, even though the supplier plans to triple its capacity by 2028.

Meanwhile, Nvidia has formed partnerships with Japan's Ibiden, South Korea's Samsung Electro-Mechanics, and Taiwan's Unimicron for the production of chip substrates—miniature and highly complex printed circuit boards on which the processor die is mounted. Unimicron intends to increase its capacity by 2.5 times over three years. Another issue is the shortage of engineers for new sites: to retain specialists, companies have already raised salaries by 20–30%. For consumer electronics, this means that after memory and storage, the cost of laptops, motherboards, and graphics cards will face pressure from another expense item.