The "Hidden Winner" of the GTC Conference? PCB Industry Welcomes Production Expansion and Upgrade Wave

Recently, the highly anticipated GTC conference was held as scheduled. During the event, Jensen Huang reiterated the necessity of future computing power development, the demand for tokens on the inference side, and showcased NVIDIA’s product lineup. All signs indicate that future demand for PCBs is expected to further increase.

NVIDIA’s Groq 3 LPU is undoubtedly a highlight of this conference. As a new chip making its debut, it can be viewed as an ASIC designed specifically for AI inference, focusing on ultra-low latency and high throughput. According to the release, a single LPU server consists of 32 trays, with each tray integrating 8 LPU chips, and a single cabinet containing 256 LPU chips.

Compared to previous cabinet architectures, the number of trays in an LPU cabinet has significantly increased (for example, the GB300 NVL72 cabinet has 27 trays). In fact, in server hardware architecture, the number of trays is closely related to the number and design of PCBs. Integrating more electronic components generally requires larger space and more complex wiring layouts. Therefore, the more complex the electronic device, the greater the PCB demand.

According to Dongwu Securities, this GTC showcased the orthogonal backplane solution in Rubin Ultra architecture, which is also expected to increase PCB demand. It is reported that in the Kyber architecture, the orthogonal backplane connects vertically placed compute and switch blades, enabling the replacement of copper cables at the scale-up level and achieving higher computing power integration within a single cabinet.

Additionally, this GTC also displayed Vera CPU standalone cabinets and STX storage cabinets, which will also contribute to increased PCB demand.

The growth trend of PCBs is gradually becoming clear

With the increasing shipment expectations for NVIDIA’s Rubin architecture, many PCB manufacturers are also expected to enter a new growth cycle.

On March 17, Siyun Circuit stated on its interactive platform that after entering the NVIDIA server supply chain system through OEM mode, leveraging its core processes in high-layer and high-frequency high-speed PCB fields and stable mass production capabilities, the current supply of PCB products related to NVIDIA servers has rapidly increased.

Meanwhile, the expansion trend in the PCB industry is gradually settling. Recently, Pengding Holdings (002938.SZ) announced that its wholly owned subsidiary plans to invest 11 billion yuan to build a high-end PCB production base. This investment aligns with the wave of AI technology development, accelerating the layout of high-end PCB production, which will help expand the company’s scale, promote technological upgrades and product iterations across product lines, and improve operational efficiency.

Guojin Securities’ research report on March 15 stated that strong demand for AI has driven PCB prices and volumes to rise simultaneously. Currently, many AI PCB companies have strong orders, are operating at full capacity, and are expanding production rapidly, with high performance growth expected to continue. Guotou Securities noted that since 2026, domestic and foreign PCB manufacturers have continued to increase capital expenditure to expand capacity, focusing on high-layer, high-end HDI, high-frequency high-speed boards, and other high-end AI PCB projects, with some companies’ investments growing several times compared to 2025.

From a technological R&D perspective, some PCB manufacturers are beginning to push forward next-generation technology verification:

Shenghong Technology’s recent research summary shows that the company has completed electrical and thermal performance verification of M7 and M8 level materials in its products and is actively promoting M9/M10 level material certification to improve high-frequency signal transmission stability and meet the requirements of next-generation AI chip architectures. The company is deeply involved in the core customer orthogonal backplane project, advancing proprietary technology accumulation and closely coordinating with customers for mass production.

Analyst Guo Mingqi’s supply chain investigation indicates that NVIDIA and Huatian Co., Ltd. have begun testing next-generation CCL materials, M10. It is reported that Huatian has started sample delivery and testing in this quarter, with preliminary results expected in the second quarter. If the tests are successful, M10 CCL and PCB are expected to begin mass production in the second half of 2027.

CITIC Securities believes that in terms of application expansion, the orthogonal backplane solution is expected to start large-scale shipments with Rubin Ultra 576 cabinets in 2027, significantly increasing the ASP of GPU PCBs by about $400; for upgrades and higher specifications, besides the orthogonal backplane still using M9+Q schemes, other products like mid-boards and switch trays face high-end material capacity shortages. Customers are considering parallel development of alternative solutions, and the trend of continuous upgrading and high-end integration under high-speed interconnects is not in conflict. Once capacity bottlenecks are resolved, the implementation and penetration of high-end processes remain highly certain.

The institution further emphasizes that PCB, as a heavily asset-intensive industry, exhibits stepwise growth in new capacity and incremental performance release. According to announcements from leading manufacturers, new capacity is expected to be released gradually in the second half of this year. By Q4 2025, capacity is nearly fully utilized, leaving limited room for product structure optimization. The phased slowdown in quarterly growth is a reasonable industry attribute, and the industry cycle is still upward. With the release of additional capacity in 2026, the performance of top PCB manufacturers is expected to grow significantly.

From an investment perspective, Guotou Securities pointed out that considering NVIDIA’s order volume and the expansion of the PCB industry upstream and downstream, AI demand remains high, and the release of new products like LPU chips continues to bring new growth points to the PCB industry. PCB equipment and materials suppliers are expected to benefit fully. It is recommended to focus on related targets in the materials and equipment sectors.

(Source: Cailian Press)