A structural supply deficit in high-end multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) is forming as demand from artificial intelligence servers and electric vehicles is set to consume a disproportionate share of production capacity through 2030.
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MLCC market enters super cycle as AI and EV demand consumes 7.5% of supply
A new super cycle is underway for the multi-layer ceramic capacitor (MLCC) market, with top manufacturers already seeing capacity utilization rates exceed 90 percent for the first quarter of 2026. This surge is driven by intense, dual-engine demand from electric vehicles and AI hardware, which require components with significantly higher capacitance, temperature resistance, and density, creating a structural shortage in the high-end market.
"While AI servers are forecast to be just 1.1 percent of global server shipments in 2025, they will consume 7.5 percent of total MLCC production capacity," a recent CSCI securities report stated. "This establishes a structural shortage, granting pricing power to suppliers of high-specification products."
The demand shift is stark: a pure electric vehicle requires up to 18,000 MLCCs, six times the amount in a traditional car, while an AI server needs double the MLCCs of a standard server. Key suppliers like Murata and Samsung Electro-Mechanics have seen their order books swell, pushing lead times and causing inventories at some distributors to fall below 30 days as of December 2025. Consequently, prices for high-end MLCCs have already climbed between 15 and 35 percent.
This cycle directly benefits market leaders Murata (33% market share) and Samsung Electro-Mechanics (23% share), along with upstream suppliers of specialized materials like nano-nickel powder. For downstream electronics and automotive firms, the trend signals rising component costs and potential production bottlenecks, impacting margins for companies reliant on these advanced capacitors. The global automotive MLCC market alone is projected to surpass 1 trillion units by 2030.
AI and EVs Create Unprecedented Demand
The growth is rooted in the specific needs of new technologies. According to Murata, a single high-end EV can use up to 30,000 MLCCs, a tenfold increase from a gasoline-powered car's 3,000. The global automotive MLCC demand is forecast to hit 650 billion units in 2025 and exceed one trillion by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate over 10 percent, largely driven by EVs.
In the data center, an Nvidia GB200 server mainboard contains three to four thousand MLCCs, double that of a general-purpose server. Critically, 60 percent of these are high-capacitance (1μF and above) and 85 percent must be high-temperature resistant, tightening the squeeze on the most advanced production lines. Samsung Electro-Mechanics, which holds over 45 percent of the AI server MLCC market, is expanding capacity in the Philippines to meet demand from North American cloud providers.
Upstream Material Suppliers Gain Pricing Power
The manufacturing of these high-performance MLCCs is dependent on highly specialized raw materials, creating a bottleneck further up the supply chain. Ceramic powder constitutes 35 to 45 percent of the cost for high-capacitance MLCCs.
Demand for the nano-nickel powder used for internal electrodes is projected to surge from approximately 720 tons in 2023 to over 6,300 tons by 2030. This market is dominated by Japanese firms and China's Boqian New Materials, which supplies roughly half of its output to Samsung. Similarly, China's Guoci Materials is one of only four global companies that can mass-produce the high-purity barium carbonate powder essential for MLCC dielectrics, positioning it as a key beneficiary of the current cycle. While Japanese and Korean firms like Murata, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, and Taiyo Yuden lead in finished components, Chinese firms are gaining a competitive edge in the upstream material segment.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
