The Current State Of The AI Industry: Global Supply Disruptions And Price Increases Of Fiberglass Electronic Fabric, Domestic Weaving Machines Make A Strong Breakthrough
In the current era of rapid AI development, everyone's attention is focused on GPU chips and high-end computing modules, neglecting the fundamental PCB substrate. Fiberglass electronic cloth is the core substrate of high-frequency, high-speed PCBs, and the nerve network of AI servers and high-end computing equipment. Whether it's NVIDIA's high-end AI graphics cards or the server motherboards of large-scale computing clusters, the stable operation of the core circuit board highly depends on the support of high-precision fiberglass electronic cloth.
With the iterative upgrades of large models and the continuous breakthroughs in AI computing power parameters, from 100 TOPS to 1000 TOPS, the leap in equipment performance places extreme demands on the high-frequency transmission, insulation, heat resistance, and stable pressure resistance of the circuit board. As the core skeleton of the circuit board, fiberglass electronic cloth directly determines the performance ceiling of high-frequency PCBs. The higher the chip integration and the denser the precision circuit layout, the more urgent the demand for ultra-thin, highly uniform, and low-loss electronic cloth becomes. This is the core root cause of the current global material shortage.
Severe supply-demand imbalance has long been the norm in the industry. Unlike the short-cycle expansion of chip production, fiberglass electronic fabric is a capital-intensive industry. The construction of production lines, equipment debugging, and process refinement are lengthy processes, making rapid capacity increases impossible in the short term. Limited capacity from leading global manufacturers, coupled with a surge in demand for AI computing equipment, has led to a market scramble for supplies. This global shortage has triggered a chain reaction, causing raw material prices to surge by 50% in the short term. The waiting period for high-quality, high-end electronic fabric production capacity has been extended to 2027, with the entire industry chain paying the price for this electronic fabric.
For a long time, the core barrier to producing high-end fiberglass electronic fabric has not been the weaving process, but rather the core production equipment. High-precision electronic fabric requires extremely high precision, stability, and controllability from the looms. For a considerable period, the special looms capable of mass-producing mainstream high-end specifications such as 7628 and 2116 electronic fabrics were monopolized by overseas companies. Domestic manufacturers wanting to expand their high-end electronic fabric production capacity had to rely on imported equipment, resulting in high procurement costs, long equipment delivery cycles, and dependence on foreign suppliers for maintenance and parts replacement, effectively trapping them at the source of equipment shortages. Upstream equipment constraints and insufficient downstream production capacity have led to a long-term reliance on imports for high-end electronic fabrics, creating a complete bottleneck. Consequently, when global demand for AI computing power exploded, domestic companies could only passively scramble for supplies, lacking production autonomy and completely losing market pricing power and supply chain control. This small piece of electronic fabric has become an invisible shackle restricting the development of China's high-end computing power industry.
Amidst this industry crisis, domestic substitution has quietly accelerated, with the fiberglass equipment sector leading the way. Domestic companies, represented by Shandong Rifeng Textile Machinery, have targeted the shortcomings in special weaving equipment, establishing a dedicated special weaving machine division to focus on the independent research and development and implementation of high-end fiberglass weaving equipment. Through long-term technological breakthroughs, their self-developed fiberglass air-jet looms have achieved technological maturity and mass production, completely breaking the long-term monopoly of overseas equipment.
Currently, domestically developed special weaving machines are being supplied in batches to leading domestic fiberglass companies, capable of stably mass-producing mainstream electronic fabrics of all specifications, including 7628 and 2116. The product precision, uniformity, and loss indicators are all comparable to international top-tier levels. The comprehensive breakthrough in equipment has directly removed key obstacles to the localization of fiberglass electronic fabric, laying a solid foundation for subsequent capacity expansion, cost optimization, and independent control of production capacity.
In 2027, the new production capacity based on domestically produced weaving machines will be released in a concentrated manner, completely changing the supply pattern of high-end electronic fabric. From relying on imported equipment and passively facing shortages to achieving independent control of domestic equipment and orderly capacity expansion, the fiberglass electronic fabric industry chain is undergoing a comprehensive turnaround.
Technological competition is never a contest of a single link. Chips are the core of the front end, while basic materials and high-end equipment are the underlying foundation. A single fiberglass electronic fabric has exposed the hidden shortcomings of high-end manufacturing and witnessed the resilience and breakthroughs of the domestic manufacturing industry. With the continuous implementation of fiberglass weaving equipment and high-end electronic fabric production capacity, the domestic AI computing power industry chain will be further improved in the future, freeing itself from external constraints at the basic material level and building a solid domestic barrier for the long-term stable development of the artificial intelligence industry.
