Won 800tn Semiconductor Mega Cluster, Won 4,700tn AI Korea Blueprint Unveiled — Even Drives US Chip Equipment Stocks

Samsung Electro-Mechanics announced it signed a won 450 billion supply contract for AI server MLCCs. The counterparty is presumed to be a North American cloud hyperscaler, with the contract running from January through December next year. Market watchers called the scale of the order unusually large, and the stock jumped about 8%.

With reports that each AI data center server rack requires roughly 600,000 MLCCs, concerns over MLCC supply shortages and potential price hikes intensified. Japan's Murata signaled it would raise prices starting in July.

Samhwa Capacitor (presumed) surged nearly 17%, while related materials, parts and equipment names such as Avatec and Kocheep also gained more than 7-9%. Prices for MLCCs, capacitors, PCB materials and industrial gases are all expected to rise broadly starting July 1.

TrendForce's June semiconductor price data also showed month-over-month price increases ranging from 10% to more than 30% depending on the item, suggesting the price uptrend is spreading from memory chips to components and materials.