The AI industry continues to gobble up manufacturing resources that were once dedicated to serving PC, smart device, and gadget makers. We’ve seen huge demand/supply driven price rises in RAM, GPUs, SSDs, and more through 2026. Now that most basic and unglamorous electronics necessity, the PCB, looks set to join them. A news report published by Nikkei Asia quotes several leading PC and PCB industry managers, making it clear we are going to see PCB (and PCB subcomponent) shortages and price rises in the coming months.

Go deeper with TH Premium: AI shortages

• •AI data centers are swallowing the world's memory and storage supply
• •Demand for data center CPUs has surged, and AI agents are responsible
• •Chip scarcity assaults auto industry amid the worsening Nexperia and DRAM crisis
• •The custom AI ASIC state of play