Everyone's tracking the memory chip shortage. Almost nobody's watching capacitors, and it's the same story playing out in a different component.

Yageo just raised prices across its entire capacitor lineup, MLCC, tantalum, aluminum electrolytic, polymer, film, super capacitors, all at once, and for the first time extended it to direct OEM and EMS clients instead of just distributors. That's over 55% of Yageo's revenue base getting repriced in one move.
Spot prices for high-end capacitors have gone up nearly 10x in a single month. Lead times have stretched from 8-12 weeks to 26-40 weeks.
The mechanism is identical to what's happening with DRAM. AI servers need 10-20x more MLCCs than a smartphone, and manufacturers like Murata and Samsung are reallocating capacity toward high-value AI-grade components, starving everything else. New capacity takes 18-24 months to build and won't meaningfully arrive before 2027.
This isn't a chip shortage anymore. It's every passive component in the electronics supply chain getting pulled into the same demand vacuum, and it's going to show up in the price of everything from EVs to headphones before most people even notice why.