$NVDA $AMKR $ASX 2449 TT 4062 JT 3037 TT 009150 KS NVIDIA is now paying its suppliers up front to build capacity: $1.1bn to KYEC for new US test plants, and a "multibillion-dollar" advance to IBIDEN for substrates. Jensen Huang's line at GTC Berlin today was "Demand is extraordinary. Capacity is the constraint." The release names four stages, each with a target and a date (chart 2): Substrates: 2.5x capacity over three years. IBIDEN's Ono plant in Japan goes to 3x, ramping from early 2028. Samsung Electro-Mechanics joins as a new supplier with capacity now and new plants in Sejong and Busan. Unimicron starts adding capacity in 2Q27 and reaches full capacity by mid-2028. Advanced packaging: Amkor raises interposer wafer capacity in Korea by more than 300% by the end of 2028, which means more than 4x. Testing: NVIDIA's total test capacity doubles from 2026 to 2027. KYEC's US plants reach volume in April 2027, Singapore in February 2027. Co-packaged optics: SPIL, part of ASE, raises optical-engine capacity 15x by mid-2027 and aims to double it again by the end of 2028. The prepayments are the part I'd focus on. A supplier won't build a plant on its own balance sheet for one customer's forecast, so NVIDIA is carrying part of that risk itself. It also tells you where NVIDIA expects to run short in 2027 and 2028: substrates, interposers, test and optical engines, all of them steps after the wafer leaves the fab. That lines up with Taiwan's September export orders, out yesterday. Orders for Taiwan-made electronics ran at 0.99 times what Taiwan shipped in components, about level with what the island can deliver for the fourth month running. Today's announcements are the capacity side of the same picture. Amkor was up about 7% before the US open. IBIDEN, KYEC, Unimicron, Samsung Electro-Mechanics and ASE all trade in Asia, which had closed before the keynote, so their first reaction comes tomorrow. Which of the four stages do you think stays tight longest?

Zhen Ding (4958 TT), a Taiwanese PCB and chip-substrate maker, has sold out its ABF substrate capacity for 2027 and 2028, according to Citi. Management believes its AI-infrastructure businesses could make up 30% of revenue in 2027 and 45%–50% in 2028, Citi says. The company had previously targeted 45%–50% by 2030. Those businesses—PCBs for servers and optical modules, along with chip substrates—accounted for 23% of revenue in the first eight months of 2026. Citi says their gross margins exceed 30%, compared with 20%–25% for consumer-electronics products.

Largan (3008 TT), a Taiwanese smartphone lens maker, plans to dedicate a newly completed factory to producing fiber array units (FAUs) for co-packaged optics, CNA reports. At its Oct. 8 earnings briefing, Largan said its fiber arrays (FAs) had passed qualification with one customer. That customer now wants Largan to supply complete FAUs rather than the arrays alone. Largan aims to have production capacity in place by the end of Q2 2027 and begin volume production in H2 2027. The company says gross margins will depend on production yields.

Sysgration (5309 TT), a Taiwanese electronics maker, says it began shipping rack-mounted battery backup units (BBUs) to cloud customers in October. Changes to customer specifications and safety testing had delayed some shipments. Changes to battery cells, modules or battery-management systems can require another round of safety testing, pushing back production and deliveries, the company says. Its high-voltage DC products are still at the technical discussion stage, the Economic Daily News reports. Citing stringent safety requirements, Sysgration expects small-volume shipments in Q4 2027 at the earliest, or possibly in 2028.