[Hot Topic] A Major PCB Substrate Manufacturer Announces Price Increase

January 7, 2026

[PCB Information Network] News – Another price increase notice from a major copper-clad laminate (CCL) manufacturer has arrived. On January 16, Resonac (formerly Showa Denko), a leading Japanese semiconductor materials manufacturer, announced that it will raise prices for its entire range of copper-clad laminates (CCL) and prepreg materials by as much as 30% or more. Resonac stated that due to tight supply and soaring prices of raw materials such as copper foil and glass cloth, coupled with significant increases in labor and transportation costs, the price hike for copper-clad laminates and prepreg materials will take effect from March 1, 2026.

Resonac pointed out that although the company has implemented various measures to reduce costs, it had to increase prices to ensure stable product supply and continue offering new technologies. The rapid growth in market demand is likely the driving force behind the price increase by major CCL manufacturers. It is reported that the rapid growth of NVIDIA GPUs and the explosive growth of Google and Amazon ASICs have created strong demand for copper-clad laminates. In 2026, NVIDIA's Rubin series PCBs will partially adopt M9 materials, and the ongoing development of orthogonal backplanes will further increase demand for M9 materials. Google's TPU products are also expected to use M9 materials, and other ASIC manufacturers may follow suit. Guojin Securities predicts explosive growth in demand for M9 materials over the next three years. AI PCBs are experiencing two major technological trends: the introduction of orthogonal backplanes (transferring copper cable value to PCBs) and the adoption of CoWoP packaging technology (transferring substrate value to PCBs). Guojin Securities believes the strong trend in AI copper-clad laminates will continue.