TrendForce: AI inference drives demand for CPUs and DDR5; high-capacity MLCC shortage expected to persist through the first half of 2027.

Zhitong Finance APP has learned that according to the latest MLCC industry research by TrendForce, as AI applications move from model training to inference and AI agents, demand for CPUs is gradually increasing. Since each CPU must be paired with power modules and DDR5 memory, the use of high-capacitance MLCCs around CPU motherboards and memory modules has doubled accordingly, causing supply of high-capacitance standard products to become particularly tight. With NVIDIA's Vera Rubin shipments ramping up monthly in the fourth quarter of 2026, and AMD's MI450 beginning to pull high-capacitance special-spec products, ODMs expect the first and second quarters of 2027 to be the period when the shortage of high-end MLCCs will be more severe.