▶ Holy Stone Enterprise says AI power surge will deepen global MLCC shortages

• Taiwan’s Holy Stone expects global MLCC supply to tighten further on the back of AI power-spec upgrades, with lead times already extending to 20+ weeks.

• The company assesses that the proliferation of AI applications is driving the strongest MLCC demand in the past 20 years, and anticipates the supply shortage to deepen through 2027.

• On robust demand from AI power customers, production lines remain fully utilized; a Phase 2 capacity expansion is underway, with new equipment to be installed in stages in 3Q26 and 1Q27.

• Following the equipment setup period, the company targets a 20–30% capacity increase by end-2026, with a further 30–40% expansion in 2027.

• Driven by growing demand for high-spec MLCCs—centered on low-loss NP0 and mid-/high-voltage X7R products—upstream equipment lead times have lengthened to roughly 1–1.5 years.

• A scramble to secure equipment similar to the 2018 MLCC expansion cycle is unfolding, but the company notes the key difference this cycle is that an AI-led improvement in the high-spec product mix is accompanied by a supply shortage.

• The generational transition of AI platforms—Nvidia A100 (2020) → H100 (2022) → Blackwell (2026) → Vera Rubin (volume production slated for Q4) → Rubin Ultra (2027)—and the accompanying architectural shifts are expected to sustain growing demand for high-spec MLCCs.

• The company has entered the supply chains of the four major U.S. CSPs and Dell, and is pursuing a strategy of product-spec upgrades rather than price hikes.

• With the pace of new capacity additions limited, the company plans to scale back shipments of low-/mid-end products; going forward, the expansion of new markets such as AI data centers, BBUs, humanoids, and eVTOLs is expected to drive rising high-spec MLCC penetration and structural improvement across the industry over the next 3–5 years.

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