Nvidia pushes the PCB materials competition upstream, HVLP4 copper foil supply gap widens

Odaily reported that Citrini analyst jukan posted on platform X, stating that as the expansion of AI infrastructure demand drives an increase in high-end PCB orders, new bottlenecks have emerged in the upstream CCL supply chain; following T-glass fiber cloth, HVLP4 copper foil is expected to become a key constraint from the second half of the year onwards.

Industry insiders say that NVIDIA and its major clients have once again directly intervened in material supply coordination to ensure that the mass production and shipment plans for next-generation AI servers remain on track. Led by NVIDIA, clients are now bypassing CCL manufacturers, directly engaging with upstream material suppliers, managing glass fiber cloth and copper foil themselves, providing suppliers with clearer order visibility, shifting to a direct consignment model, and locking in key material production capacity more than a year in advance.

The supply-demand gap is expected to exceed 40% in 2026, and will still be 25% in 2027. As major AI servers and high-speed computing platforms migrate from HVLP2/HVLP3 to HVLP4, the demand for HVLP4 copper foil is rising. The supply shortage is expected to reach 1,500 tons in 2026; Mitsui Kinzoku and Co-Tech are expanding production, but the HVLP4 supply gap is projected to widen to 2,500 tons by 2027.