Murata Weighs Major MLCC Expansion as AI Demand Surges

The generative AI boom is driving the construction of data centers and AI servers worldwide, boosting demand for multilayer ceramic capacitors, or MLCCs. Used for voltage stabilization and noise suppression, MLCCs are required in large numbers in each high-performance server, prompting major Japanese passive-component makers including Kyocera, Murata Manufacturing and Taiyo Yuden to expand production and reshape their supply-chain strategies.

Kyocera plans to invest about 100 billion yen by fiscal 2030 to expand production capacity for MLCCs used in AI servers as the data-center construction boom fuels order growth. Murata Manufacturing and Taiyo Yuden have also announced related capital spending and production expansion plans, showing that Japan's leading suppliers are moving faster to capture opportunities in AI infrastructure.

Multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) are essential passive components in server power-management systems and motherboards. AI servers require more high-capacitance, high-specification products as their computing power and current demands rise. Localized shortages could therefore affect overall system costs, supply-chain inventory planning and shipment schedules. Price movements among electronics distributors in Huaqiangbei are also widely viewed as an important gauge of supply and demand in China’s spot market.

Recent data from Huaqiangbei distributors show that spot prices for high-capacitance MLCCs have risen severalfold within a month, while lead times have stretched to about 20 weeks, reflecting rapidly accelerating AI server demand. Manufacturers remain cautious, however. Industry assessments indicate that the increases are concentrated mainly in high-end specifications facing tighter supply and have not spread to standard models. Conditions are therefore not yet in place for a broad-based surge like the one seen in the memory market.