According to a Nikkei report, as executives at PC manufacturers like HP and Dell begin planning their 2027 supply needs, a seemingly ordinary component has unexpectedly become a focus of their attention: printed circuit boards (PCBs). PCBs are an inconspicuous yet indispensable part of the electronics industry supply chain. A manager at a US PC manufacturer stated, "Various types of PCBs have become a key bottleneck in our product planning for next year. Even though PC shipments may decline again next year, we still struggle to secure sufficient PCB supply to meet our own needs." Interviews with several industry executives and managers revealed that as the demand for artificial intelligence computing continues to squeeze existing capacity, PCBs and chip packaging substrates have become major supply bottlenecks for consumer electronics manufacturers such as smartphones and computers. Top AI chip developers like Nvidia, Broadcom, and AMD now consider PCBs and chip packaging substrates strategic resources that must be prioritized to support business expansion.
