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AI demand drives substrate price divergence between Japan and Taiwan

By PulseAugur Editorial · [5 sources] ·

Analysis from SemiAnalysis highlights a divergence in Average Selling Price (ASP) data for ABF substrates between Japan and Taiwan, driven by how production data is reported. While Japan measures value per square meter, Taiwan uses a per-piece metric, which captures the significantly larger size of AI accelerator substrates. This difference in reporting means Taiwan's data reflects both material complexity and physical size, leading to a much sharper increase in reported ASP compared to Japan's data, which primarily accounts for material sophistication. AI

IMPACT Highlights how AI demand is influencing the pricing and reporting of critical semiconductor components.

RANK_REASON Analysis of industry data trends from a specialized source.

Read on X — SemiAnalysis →

AI-generated summary · Google Gemini · from 5 sources. How we write summaries →

AI demand drives substrate price divergence between Japan and Taiwan

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COVERAGE [5]

  1. X — SemiAnalysis TIER_1 English(EN) · SemiAnalysis_ ·

    That's the important takeaway.

    That's the important takeaway. The AI demand is driving increasing demand for ABF substrates. And the Chipbook datasets out of Japan vs. Taiwan give us one more layer of granularity. They tell us that substrate body size is becoming a much bigger driver of value, and much

  2. X — SemiAnalysis TIER_1 English(EN) · SemiAnalysis_ ·

    And the size effect is enormous.

    And the size effect is enormous. A 100x100mm+ accelerator substrate has 20–50x the area of a typical memory or mobile substrate. Yet it’s result is merely ~1.5–2x in $/m² terms. So Japan's data is telling us how complexity is adding value. Taiwan's data is telling us how size

  3. X — SemiAnalysis TIER_1 English(EN) · SemiAnalysis_ ·

    That makes the Japan data useful, but for a different question.

    That makes the Japan data useful, but for a different question. It's telling us what the market is paying for the material itself: more layers, tighter line/space, more sophisticated materials, etc. And that number is clearly going up. But Taiwan is capturing all of that plus …

  4. X — SemiAnalysis TIER_1 English(EN) · SemiAnalysis_ ·

    The answer is how each country reports production data; specifically, the denominator.

    The answer is how each country reports production data; specifically, the denominator. Japan measures substrate value per m². Taiwan measures it per piece. That matters a lot. Make a substrate twice as large, with everything else unchanged, and $/m² stays the same. But the ht…

  5. X — SemiAnalysis TIER_1 English(EN) · SemiAnalysis_ ·

    As industry attention turns to substrates, Japanese and Taiwanese ASP charts look like they're telling completely different stories.

    As industry attention turns to substrates, Japanese and Taiwanese ASP charts look like they're telling completely different stories. Japan pricing is increasing, but is not up nearly as sharply as the pricing data coming out of Taiwan, which has tripled since mid-2025 and is at …

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