Nikkei Asia reviews that Apple has been scrambling to resolve a glass fabric scarcity, with the provision crunch projected to final till a minimum of the second half of 2027. Right here’s what meaning.
’One of many largest bottlenecks for 2026’
In line with Nikkei Asia, Apple was one of many first firms to show to glass fabric fiber as a part of the substrate to iPhone chips, partly attributable to its “dimensional stability, rigidity and skill to facilitate high-speed knowledge transmission”.
As Nikkei Asia explains it:
Glass fabric is a vital part in chip substrates and printed circuit boards (PCBs), themselves the constructing blocks of digital units, and probably the most superior sorts of this fabric are made nearly solely by one Japanese firm: Nitto Boseki, or Nittobo for brief.
The issue is that, due to the AI growth, firms akin to Nvidia, Google, and Amazon have additionally been turning to high-end glass fabric as a part of the substrate for his or her AI chips, making a provide crunch very similar to the reminiscence chip scarcity that has pushed costs up in current weeks.
That stress has reportedly prompted Apple, AMD, and Nvidia to dispatch employees to Japan in an effort to safe provides, an initiative that finally went nowhere. As one supply instructed Nikkei Asia, “No further capability is not any further capability, even should you stress Nittobo.”
In an try to handle the scenario, along with reaching out to the Japanese authorities, Nikkei Asia says that Apple has additionally been turning to various sources. Nonetheless, bringing new suppliers as much as spec stays a problem:
Apple can be working exhausting to domesticate various sources, together with sending workers to a small Chinese language glass fiber maker often called Grace Cloth Know-how (GFT) and asking [Mitsubishi Gas Chemical] to assist oversee the Chinese language materials provider’s high quality enchancment, two sources acquainted with the matter mentioned.
And
Many new entrants are hoping to capitalize on the constrained provide, akin to Taiwan Glass, a conventional glass maker based mostly in Taipei, and China’s Taishan Fiberglass, Grace Cloth and Kingboard Laminates Group.
However the technological obstacles to entry are extraordinarily excessive — each glass fiber is far thinner than a human hair and should be completely spherical and freed from any bubbles — and newcomers are struggling to attain satisfactory capability and constant high quality, individuals acquainted with the scenario mentioned. No tech big is prepared to danger mounting their high-end chips on substrates that might compromise the standard of its ultimate merchandise, business executives instructed Nikkei Asia.
Lastly, the report additionally mentions Qualcomm, one of many largest cellular chip suppliers, as one more firm scrambling to mitigate the scenario, with no short-term resolution in sight.
You could find Nikkei Asia‘s report right here.
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