According to a report by Taiwan's Economic Daily, three technology giants—NVIDIA, Intel, and AMD—have prepaid over NT$100 billion (about $5 billion) in deposits to high-end IC circuit board manufacturers in Taiwan, China, in order to secure key production capacity in the AI supply chain and guarantee long-term supply.
Driven by this, Taiwan's top three PCB manufacturers, Hon Hai, Jing Shuo, and Nandian, have announced cumulative investments of NT$161.2 billion this year for factory construction, setting a new historical record.
Intel CEO Chen Liwu ( Lip - Bu Tan ) previously stated that the demand for AI has driven the demand for advanced packaging and chips, resulting in continuous shortages in the supply of upstream IC circuit boards and materials. Many customers have voluntarily made advance payments to help Intel secure circuit board capacity. Based on this, Intel is estimated to have pre-purchased circuit board capacity worth approximately $3 billion over the long term.
AMD previously announced an investment of tens of billions of dollars in Taiwan, which the industry generally interpreted as a strategy to secure supply chain capacity. Among this, investments related to carrier boards are estimated to be around one billion dollars. NVIDIA also announced plans to significantly expand production in collaboration with several key supply chain partners. The outside world speculates that its investment in Taiwanese carrier board manufacturers is also around one billion dollars, with the possibility of further increases.
Xinxing: With capital expenditure leading the industry, it spent tens of billions to acquire a factory building
According to the aforementioned report, Xinxing ranked first among carrier board manufacturers in terms of capital expenditure this year. The company's board of directors previously resolved to increase capital expenditure by NT$19.7 billion for the current year, raising the total annual capital expenditure to NT$53.7 billion. At the same time, significant investments were made in purchasing equipment with long lead times, and the amount of related purchase orders was further increased by NT$17.6 billion.
In terms of land and factory layout, Hsin Hsing announced at the end of September that it would acquire Taiwan's Bridgestone Hukou plant for approximately NT$10.08 billion to meet the future high-end carrier board production capacity expansion needs of its customers. The company stated in its announcement that this land acquisition is based on its medium- to long-term operational development strategy, with the aim of conducting overall production configuration and capacity planning.
Jingshuo: Transitioning to high-end carrier boards, with a production expansion budget of over 40 billion in three years
In recent years, JingShuo has continuously phased out of traditional PCB production, focusing its resources on transforming into a high-end carrier board business. The board of directors has approved capital expenditures of NT$23.5 billion to meet the equipment investment needs for the expansion of ABF carrier board production capacity over the next three years. Of this amount, NT$8 billion is planned to be spent in 2026, with NT$6 billion specifically allocated for ABF carrier board investments.
In addition, the board of directors of JingShuo has additionally allocated a special project capital expenditure budget of NT$19.6 billion to further intensify the expansion efforts, with the total expansion budget exceeding NT$40 billion.
NanDian: Building a smart factory, with a single investment of nearly 50 billion
The board of directors of Nantong Electric Power previously passed a resolution to allocate additional capital expenditures for the construction of a smart factory dedicated to manufacturing large-sized, high-layer, high-end circuit boards. The estimated investment amount reaches NT$46.8 billion, which is the highest among the three manufacturers.
AI The arms race in infrastructure is spreading upstream
The combined investment of the three major tech giants in Taiwan's circuit board industry is estimated to reach $5 billion (approximately NT$162.9 billion), reflecting the deep dependence on upstream key materials and packaging substrates for AI infrastructure construction. As a core intermediary component that connects chips to circuit boards, the supply bottleneck of circuit boards has directly affected the pace of capacity release in the entire AI supply chain.
The model where customers lock in production capacity with large upfront payments not only provides demand visibility support for the large-scale capital expenditures of Taiwanese circuit board manufacturers but also indicates that technology giants have elevated the priority of supply chain security to the level of actively securing resources. This year, Taiwanese circuit board manufacturers announced a cumulative investment of NT$161.2 billion, setting a new historical high, reflecting the market's long-term optimistic expectations for demand related to AI circuit boards.
