Murata Manufacturing to invest 1 trillion yen over five years to expand MLCC production, targeting AI servers and computing hardware

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Murata Manufacturing, the world's leading MLCC maker based in Japan, recently announced a medium- to long-term capacity expansion plan, under which it will invest a total of about 1 trillion yen (equivalent to 42.2 billion RMB) over the five-year period from fiscal 2026 to fiscal 2030, focusing on building multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCC) capacity to meet the surging demand from AI servers and computing hardware for high-end passive components, with the goal of doubling MLCC sales in fiscal 2030 compared with fiscal 2025.

Of the 1 trillion yen investment, 350 billion yen will go to plant infrastructure, and the remaining 650 billion yen will be used to purchase production line equipment and upgrade processes, with the expansion covering its existing bases in Japan, Southeast Asia and China. The Okayama base in Japan is the focus of this round, with plans to invest 150 billion yen in new production lines, and the new plant is expected to gradually start production by the end of 2028; overseas factories such as those in Thailand will also add supporting production lines.

AI servers are reshaping the demand structure for MLCCs. Unlike the demand for general-purpose capacitors from consumer electronics such as mobile phones, AI computing motherboards and high-speed power supply links require high-end MLCCs with low equivalent series inductance and high stability. A single AI server carries far more capacitors than a traditional server, and imposes stringent standards on voltage withstand and temperature stability.

Murata President Norio Nakajima said at a briefing that data centers and optical communications infrastructure have entered a continuous expansion cycle, with demand rising faster than previously expected, and the original capacity plan can no longer keep pace with the order rhythm of downstream cloud vendors and chipmakers.

It is worth noting that this is not Murata's first move to step up server components. Earlier this year, the company already added a special investment of 80 billion yen to expand MLCC capacity for servers. Murata's goal is not only to supply current AI servers, but also to reserve capacity space for edge AI devices, robots and automotive intelligent hardware, connecting the component supply chain from computing infrastructure to terminal intelligent hardware.

Across the industry, Japanese and Korean peers such as Samsung Electro-Mechanics and Kyocera have also followed with high-end MLCC expansion. However, high-end MLCCs are constrained by the supply of ceramic powder and tape casting equipment, and there is a time lag before new capacity is released. Against this backdrop, price increases and capacity expansion have become the norm for leading global MLCC manufacturers. Murata, Taiyo Yuden and Samsung Electro-Mechanics have previously issued price increase letters one after another, with original manufacturers' prices for high-capacity MLCCs used in AI servers generally rising by 15%-35%.

Shenwan Hongyuan Securities believes that the industry has locked in long-term supply, rising ASPs continue to be verified, and a trend of order shifting from consumer-grade products is emerging. It is bullish on the continuation of high-end price increases and the continued tight supply and demand for consumer-grade products. Domestic manufacturers are expected to benefit from order spillover and domestic share substitution, and it suggests paying attention to leading domestic MLCC makers and companies in upstream materials such as ceramic powder.

(Source: STAR Market Daily) Body middle Embedded ad