A capital feast in the CET PCB market worth tens of billions of dollars: which listed companies are benefiting?

In 2026, driven by strong demand for AI computing power, the global printed circuit board (PCB) market is undergoing a comprehensive reshaping—from technical standards to the industrial landscape. While the market size has surpassed $95 billion, a dramatic “stratification” is taking place within the PCB industry: high-end products are in short supply, while low-end capacity is trapped in wafer-thin profits or even losses. This industrial transformation triggered by a technological gap is directly reflected in changes in share prices and valuations of listed companies across global capital markets.

Which PCB leaders in the A-share market are driving industry expansion

The A-share market brings together a group of listed companies with the greatest scale-effect advantages in the global PCB industrial chain. According to incomplete statistics, there are currently about 45 A-share listed companies involved in the PCB industry, and 4 listed on the Hong Kong market, for a total of 47 listed companies across both mainland China and Hong Kong. Among them, the capital expenditure and capacity expansion plans of leading enterprises are particularly eye-catching.

Pengtong (002938.SZ) is the world’s largest PCB manufacturer. From 2017 to 2025, it ranked first globally in revenue among PCB companies for nine consecutive years. As of July 8, 2026, the company’s stock closed at 91.29 yuan per share, with a total market capitalization of approximately 2,115.68 billion yuan. Since the beginning of 2026, Pengtong’s share price has risen by more than 90%, and at one point during the year it reached an all-time high of 121.97 yuan. In July 2026, the company disclosed a private placement plan, proposing to raise no more than 9.6 billion yuan, all of which will be used for the construction of high-end PCB capacity. In the first quarter of 2026, the company achieved revenue of 7.986 billion yuan and net profit attributable to shareholders of 463 million yuan.

WUS Printed Circuit (002463.SZ) is a representative company in the A-share PCB sector that was among the first to scale up high-end products supporting AI chips. In the fourth quarter of 2024, the company planned an investment of approximately 4.3 billion yuan to build an expansion project for high-end printed circuit boards supporting AI chips. The project began construction in June 2025 and is expected to start trial production in the second half of 2026 and gradually increase capacity. As of July 8, 2026, WUS Printed Circuit’s total market capitalization is approximately 2,479 billion yuan.

Shennan Circuits (002916.SZ) is mainly engaged in printed circuit boards, packaging substrates, and electronic assembly products. In June 2026, the company disclosed a private placement plan, proposing to raise no more than 4.882 billion yuan for the Wuxi Shennan Circuits AI computing power electronic circuit products project. In mid-June 2026, Shennan Circuits’ share price briefly broke above 444 yuan, setting a historical high since listing, with its total market capitalization exceeding 3,000 billion yuan.

Dongshan Precision (002384.SZ) covers areas including electronic circuits, optical modules, precision components, and more. In the field of flexible printed circuit boards (FPC), it ranks second globally, and in terms of overall PCB rankings it ranks third globally. As of mid-June 2026, the company’s market value has already exceeded 4,500 billion yuan. On July 7, 2026, Dongshan Precision saw a straight-line intraday surge, with gains at one point exceeding 7%.

Victory Giant Technology (300476.SZ) is mainly engaged in the R&D, production, and sales of high-density printed circuit boards. In the first half of 2026, the company rolled out an annual investment plan of 20 billion yuan. As of July 8, 2026, the company’s total market capitalization is approximately 2,748.46 billion yuan.

Overall, in the first half of 2026, the total investment disclosed in capacity expansion plans by A-share PCB listed companies was close to 60 billion yuan, and the single-quarter capital expenditure of the top 6 manufacturers reached 13.28 billion yuan. The scale of investment in a single quarter was nearly equal to the total for all of 2023. All of the newly added funds, without exception, are directed to high-end production lines such as ultra-high multilayer boards for AI servers, advanced HDI, and IC substrates.

Which PCB manufacturers in the U.S. market are benefiting from AI infrastructure construction

The most representative PCB manufacturer in the U.S. market is TTM Technologies (TTMI). The company is headquartered in Santa Ana, California. It has production bases in the United States, Taiwan (China), and other locations. Its business covers mission systems, RF components, microwave/microelectronic assembly, and PCB and substrates, as well as electronic assembly products.

TTM Technologies’ performance in the first quarter of 2026 exceeded market expectations. Its net sales reached $846 million, up 30.4% year over year, setting a quarterly historical high. For full-year 2025, net sales were $2.9063 billion, up 19.0% year over year.

As of the close on July 7, 2026, TTMI’s share price was $144.08, with a market capitalization of approximately $14.963 billion. The stock’s 52-week price range is $39.20 to $223.83. Its return year-to-date is as high as 108.81%, one-year return is as high as 244.03%, and three-year return is as high as 962.54%. Analysts’ consensus target price is $212, which still leaves about 13.4% upside from the current price.

In terms of capacity expansion, in June 2026 TTM Technologies announced plans to acquire two European PCB manufacturers, with the transaction expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2026. This acquisition will further expand the company’s capacity layout and customer coverage in the European market.

How are the leading companies in Japan’s PCB industry chain performing?

Japan is an important pole in the global PCB industry, and it has notable technical advantages—especially in high value-added areas such as IC substrates.

Ibiden (4062.JP) is the leader in Japan’s ABF substrate sector. Benefiting from strong demand for high-end IC substrates driven by AI servers, the company’s fiscal 2025 results (from April 2025 to March 2026) exceeded market expectations, with net profit surging 89.0%.

Looking ahead to fiscal 2026 (from April 2026 to March 2027), Ibiden expects the AI field to grow further, with demand for high-performance IC substrates continuing to rise. Consolidated revenue is forecast to increase 20.1% to 500 billion yen, and consolidated operating profit is forecast to surge 45.1% to 90 billion yen.

In terms of share-price performance, on May 12, 2026, Ibiden briefly touched a historical high of 17,890 yen during intraday trading. Its cumulative gain for 2026 reached as high as 160%. On that day, the share price surged by 14% in the early session, setting a new record for the historical high.

Ibiden believes that AI server demand is extending from GPUs to inference ASICs, driving the ongoing expansion of the AI GPU and ASIC markets. As AI applications move from model training to inference and deployment, demand for cloud service providers’ in-house ASICs is expected to increase rapidly, further boosting the volume of high-performance IC substrates used.

What does the launch of the first PCB-themed ETF mean?

In July 2026, China Trust and Investment (CTBC) announced the launch of the domestic first ETF focusing on the PCB supply chain—CTBC Taiwan Japan Korea PCB ETF (009828). It has received approval from the relevant authorities to raise funds, and is expected to be offered publicly from August 17 to August 20.

This ETF tracks the “NYSE TIP Taiwan Japan Korea PCB Index.” From PCB-related stocks in the three major markets of Taiwan, Japan, and Korea, it selects individual stocks with strong liquidity and revenue sources focused on PCB manufacturing and upstream materials. Based on total market capitalization ranking, it selects 30 constituent stocks. As of May 31, 2026, the top ten constituent stocks include Taiwan Union, Unimicron, Ibiden, Mitsui Mining & Smelting, Gold Circuit Electronics, Taiwan Union (note: appears as both “Taiwan Union” and “Taiwan Union” in the source text—kept as-is), JX Metals, Avary, Nitto Denko, and Doosan Group.

The launch of this ETF marks a shift in the PCB industry from a “segmented niche track” to “mainstream asset allocation.” Foreign institutions such as Bank of America and Goldman Sachs agree that demand for AI infrastructure remains strong, and the shortage of substrates and CCL is expected to continue through the end of 2027 and even into 2028. Goldman Sachs further expects that the gap rate in the substrate market could reach 42% by 2028.

How do the competitive landscapes of PCB listed companies differ across regions?

From a global perspective, the regional competitive landscape of PCB listed companies shows clear differences.

Mainland China enterprises have an absolute advantage in production scale. Among the world’s top 10 PCB manufacturers, Chinese companies hold seven seats. Pengtong ranks first globally, and Dongshan Precision ranks third globally. There are more than 45 PCB listed companies on the A-share market, and the industrial chain covers a complete set of links from upstream copper-clad laminates to downstream PCB manufacturing.

U.S. enterprises, such as TTM Technologies, have differentiated competitive advantages in high value-added fields like aerospace and defense, and data centers. The company is transforming from a cyclical PCB manufacturer into a high-value AI infrastructure and defense supplier.

Japanese enterprises such as Ibiden occupy a leading position in cutting-edge technologies like IC substrates. In particular, they are irreplaceable in the key link of ABF substrates, which are crucial for AI chip packaging.

Korean and Taiwanese enterprises also occupy important positions in the PCB industrial chain. This is also the industrial logic behind the 009828 ETF incorporating the three markets of Taiwan, Japan, and Korea into a single index.

What industrial trends does the PCB capacity-expansion wave reveal?

From August 2025 to June 2026, at least 20 A-share PCB listed companies published capacity expansion announcements, involving total investments exceeding 80 billion yuan. The core driving force behind this wave is an upgrade of technical standards brought about by AI computing power demand.

In traditional servers, PCBs are mainly medium-to-high multilayer boards of 8 to 16 layers. However, AI servers need to support 112G/224G high-speed SerDes interconnections, control dielectric loss to Df ≤ 0.002, and reduce line width/spacing precision to within 30 micrometers. This technological gap creates an insurmountable barrier between low-end and high-end capacity.

At the same time, upstream raw material prices continue to rise—fiberglass has already experienced 5 rounds of price increases in 2026, with a cumulative increase approaching 100%. The combined net profit of the five major PCB equipment companies grew 124% year over year in 2025. Under the dual pressure of rising raw material prices and surging equipment demand, PCB listed companies are undergoing a supply-side reform centered on “upgrading to high-end.”

Summary

The global PCB sector is in a structural growth cycle driven by AI computing power demand. In the A-share market, leading companies such as Pengtong, WUS Printed Circuit, Shennan Circuits, Dongshan Precision, and Victory Giant Technology are competing for high-end market share with total planned capacity expansions of nearly 60 billion yuan. In the U.S. market, TTM Technologies, with annual returns exceeding 100%, has validated the market’s re-evaluation of PCB manufacturers’ valuations. In the Japanese market, Ibiden has refreshed its all-time high with a 160% year-on-year increase. Meanwhile, the launch of the first PCB-themed ETF further confirms the extension of this sector’s logic—from an industrial logic to an asset-allocation logic. Listed companies in different regions have advantages in scale, technology, and customer structure, but they all point to a core trend: high-end PCBs are upgrading from “basic components of the electronics industry” to “critical bottlenecks of AI infrastructure,” and this transition is receiving continuous pricing feedback in the capital market.

FAQ

Q: Which are the major PCB listed companies in the A-share market?

The major listed companies in the A-share PCB sector include Pengtong (002938.SZ), WUS Printed Circuit (002463.SZ), Shennan Circuits (002916.SZ), Dongshan Precision (002384.SZ), and Victory Giant Technology (300476.SZ), among others. Currently, there are about 45 listed companies in the A-share market involved in the PCB industry.

Q: Which is the world’s largest PCB manufacturer?

Pengtong is the world’s largest PCB manufacturer. From 2017 to 2025, it ranked first globally in revenue among PCB companies for nine consecutive years. As of July 8, 2026, its total market capitalization is approximately 2,115.68 billion yuan.

Q: Which are the major PCB manufacturers in the U.S. market?

The most representative PCB manufacturer in the U.S. market is TTM Technologies (TTMI). In the first quarter of 2026, its net sales reached $846 million, up 30.4% year over year, setting a quarterly historical high. As of July 7, 2026, its market capitalization is approximately $14.963 billion.

Q: How has Japan’s PCB leader Ibiden performed?

Ibiden (4062.JP) is the leading company in Japan’s ABF substrates. Its net profit surged 89.0% in fiscal 2025. The company expects consolidated revenue to jump 20.1% to 500 billion yen in fiscal 2026, and operating profit to surge 45.1% to 90 billion yen.

Q: Are there any ETF products related to the PCB industry?

In July 2026, the domestic first ETF focusing on the PCB supply chain—CTBC Taiwan Japan Korea PCB ETF (009828)—has been approved for fundraising and is expected to be publicly offered from August 17 to August 20. This ETF tracks about 30 PCB-related constituent stocks across the Taiwan, Japan, and Korea markets.

Q: Why are PCB listed companies expanding capacity so intensively?

AI computing power demand has driven a comprehensive upgrade of PCB technical standards. From August 2025 to June 2026, at least 20 A-share PCB companies released capacity expansion announcements, involving total investments exceeding 80 billion yuan. All newly added capacity is directed to high-end areas such as ultra-high multilayer boards for AI servers, advanced HDI, and IC substrates, while low-end PCB capacity faces continued pressure from a steadily declining gross margin.