{"id":120978,"date":"2026-08-26T19:28:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T19:28:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/120978\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T19:28:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T19:28:29","slug":"ai-server-boom-fuels-record-supply-crunch-for-the-rice-of-electronics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/120978\/","title":{"rendered":"AI server boom fuels record supply crunch for the \u2018rice of electronics\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Global inventories of multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) \u2013 tiny components dubbed \u201cthe rice of the electronics industry\u201d \u2013 have dropped to a record low as the industry grapples with surging demand from artificial intelligence infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Worldwide distributor inventory volume for the components \u2013 which act as electrical buffers in circuit boards and are increasingly used in massive volumes in high-performance servers \u2013 declined 8 per cent by August 9 compared with four weeks earlier, extending a downward trend, according to a Wednesday report by UBS Evidence Lab.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">MLCCs have emerged as the latest AI-driven investor darling following memory chips and optical modules. With average unit prices continuing to climb, the total value of distributor inventory jumped 10 per cent over the same period, the UBS report showed.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Year-on-year data to the end of July showed a 13 per cent rise in the unit price index, distributor volumes plunging 22 per cent and inventory value up 6 per cent.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cWe believe supply-demand tightness could start with AI-related and distributor channels and then spread to the overall market,\u201d wrote UBS analysts led by Shingo Hirata in the report.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Inventory levels at major manufacturers followed a similar trend to distributors. By August 9, Japan\u2019s Murata Manufacturing and South Korea\u2019s Samsung Electro-Mechanics (SEMCO) saw volume declines of 8 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively, compared with four weeks earlier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Global inventories of multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) \u2013 tiny components dubbed \u201cthe rice of the electronics industry\u201d \u2013&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[129],"tags":[2252,58931,225,58933,58934,8979,1219,58935,42496,58805,58932,1220,58930,223,58804,2926],"class_list":["post-120978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ubs","tag-ai","tag-ai-server-grade-mlccs","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-citrini-research","tag-defiance-etfs","tag-goldman-sachs","tag-japan","tag-mlccs","tag-murata-manufacturing","tag-samsung-electro-mechanics","tag-semco","tag-south-korea","tag-tdk-corporation","tag-ubs","tag-ubs-evidence-lab","tag-wall-street"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/117163465447393025","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}