NVIDIA, Intel, and AMD Prepay Over NT$100 Billion to Lock In Taiwan's High-End IC Substrate Capacity

According to Taiwan's Economic Daily News, the three tech giants Nvidia, Intel, and AMD, in order to secure key production capacity in the AI supply chain, have collectively prepaid more than NT$100 billion (about US$5 billion) in deposits to high-end IC substrate manufacturers in Taiwan, China, locking in long-term capacity supply.

Driven by this, Taiwan's top three substrate makers—Unimicron, Kinsus, and Nan Ya PCB—have announced a cumulative investment of NT$161.2 billion this year in plant construction, setting a record high.

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan previously stated publicly that AI demand is driving demand for advanced packaging and chips, that supply of upstream IC substrates and materials remains tight, and that multiple customers have proactively paid advances to help Intel lock in substrates and capacity. Based on this, legal persons estimate that Intel's long-term prepurchase of substrate capacity amounts to about US$3 billion.

AMD previously announced a US$10 billion investment in Taiwan, which the industry widely interprets as locking in supply chain capacity, of which substrate-related investment is estimated at about US$1 billion; Nvidia also announced that it is advancing a large-scale capacity expansion plan with multiple core supply chain partners, and outsiders speculate that its substrate investment in Taiwanese manufacturers is likewise about US$1 billion, with the possibility of further increases.

Unimicron: Capital expenditure ranks first among peers, spends NT$10 billion to acquire plant

According to the above report, Unimicron's capital expenditure this year ranks first among substrate manufacturers. The company's board of directors previously resolved to add NT$19.7 billion to this year's capital expenditure, bringing the total for the year to NT$53.7 billion, while also making large purchases of long-lead-time equipment, with related purchase orders increased by a further NT$17.6 billion.

In terms of land and plant layout, Unimicron announced at the end of September that it would acquire the Hsinchu plant office of Bridgestone Taiwan for about NT$10.08 billion, to meet customers' future demand for high-end substrate capacity expansion. The company's announcement stated that the land acquisition is based on medium- and long-term operational development strategy, aimed at overall production allocation and capacity planning.

Kinsus: Transforming to high-end substrates, three-year expansion budget exceeds NT$40 billion

In recent years, Kinsus has continued to fade out of traditional PCB production and concentrate resources on transforming into high-end substrate business. The board of directors has approved capital expenditure of NT$23.5 billion to meet the equipment investment needed for ABF substrate capacity expansion over the next three years, of which NT$8 billion is planned for 2026, with NT$6 billion earmarked for ABF substrate investment.

In addition, the Kinsus board has added an additional special capital expenditure budget of NT$19.6 billion to further strengthen expansion efforts, bringing the total expansion budget to more than NT$40 billion.

Nan Ya PCB: Building a smart factory, single investment of nearly NT$50 billion

The board of directors of Nan Ya PCB previously passed a resolution to add capital expenditure for building a smart factory focused on large-size, high-layer-count high-end substrates, with an estimated investment of NT$46.8 billion, the highest single investment among the three manufacturers.

The three tech giants' combined investment in Taiwan's substrate industry is estimated at US$5 billion (about NT$162.9 billion), reflecting the deep reliance of AI infrastructure construction on upstream key materials and packaging substrates. As the core intermediary component connecting chips and circuit boards, substrates' supply bottleneck has directly affected the pace of capacity release across the entire AI supply chain.

The model of customers locking in capacity with large advance payments, on the one hand, provides demand visibility support for Taiwanese substrate manufacturers' large-scale capital expenditure, and on the other hand shows that tech giants have elevated the priority of supply chain security to the level of proactively binding resources. The cumulative investment announced by Taiwan's major substrate manufacturers this year hit a record high of NT$161.2 billion, reflecting long-term optimistic expectations for AI-related substrate demand in the market. Risk Disclosure and Disclaimer

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