Samsung Electro-Mechanics has signed its largest-ever supply contract, worth more than 1 trillion won, with a global technology giant, moving to secure an early lead in multilayer ceramic capacitors, a core component of artificial intelligence chips. With demand for MLCCs surging as big tech firms race to develop AI chips, the company plans to cement its global position by combining large supply contracts with expanded production capacity.
Samsung Electro-Mechanics (009150) said on the 1st that it had signed a 1.0722 trillion won ($745 million) contract to supply MLCCs for AI servers to a global technology company. The components will be used in AI chips the customer produces over the course of next year. It is the largest MLCC supply contract the company has ever signed, more than double the roughly 450 billion won deal reached with another technology giant in June this year.
The contract gives concrete form to part of a long-term agreement, running up to five years, that Samsung Electro-Mechanics previously signed with the customer. The company holds similar LTAs with about 10 global firms, raising expectations for a series of new supply contracts ranging from hundreds of billions to several trillion won. Including 450 billion won in June, 300 billion won in July and the latest 1.0722 trillion won deal, the company has booked cumulative MLCC orders of 3.32 trillion won so far this year.
MLCCs stabilize and control the flow of electricity in electronic circuits. Long used in smartphones and PCs, they have become essential components in AI chips such as Nvidia's graphics processing units and in AI servers. Demand from big tech firms is climbing sharply as AI infrastructure expands, with an estimated 800,000 MLCCs expected to go into Nvidia's new Vera Rubin chip. According to Goldman Sachs, the market for MLCCs used in AI servers is projected to grow to $5.8 billion (about 7.9 trillion won) in 2030 from $1.4 billion (about 1.9 trillion won) last year.
MLCCs for AI servers are difficult to develop and mass-produce, leaving only a handful of suppliers, including Samsung Electro-Mechanics and Japan's Murata, able to deliver them reliably. Unlike conventional MLCCs, they must operate stably around the clock in high-temperature, high-voltage conditions. Samsung Electro-Mechanics holds a market share of more than 40% in the AI server segment on the strength of its proprietary technology.
The company is also accelerating construction of new production lines to strengthen its market lead. Utilization at its component lines, centered on MLCCs, reached 91% at the end of June, requiring a rapid capacity buildup to match additional supply contracts.
A third MLCC plant under construction in Calamba, Laguna province, in the Philippines will begin operating in the first quarter of next year, just 15 months after the site was secured. That is a far faster timeline than Murata's, which broke ground on a production line in early 2024 and completed it in April this year, more than two years later. Alongside the new Philippine plant, Samsung Electro-Mechanics plans to expand MLCC lines at its Busan plant, lifting production capacity by up to 20% a year.
The company is building out its AI chip component business around MLCCs. Components including MLCCs, which account for nearly half of revenue, are driving growth, while the company is also expanding capacity in flip-chip ball grid array substrates for AI chips, a new business, through a 1.8 trillion won plant in Vietnam. First-half revenue was 6.6663 trillion won and operating profit 720.9 billion won, up 20.6% and 74.3% respectively from a year earlier.
