Apple Confronts Prolonged Shortage of Advanced Glass Cloth as AI Demand Soars
Production concentrated at Japan’s Nittobo has created a bottleneck projected to last until at least late 2027.
Overview
- Apple stationed staff at Mitsubishi Gas Chemical in Japan last autumn and has asked Japanese officials for assistance securing materials.
- The highest‑grade glass cloth for chip substrates is produced almost entirely by Nitto Boseki, leaving no immediate capacity to allocate to new orders.
- Apple is working to qualify China’s Grace Fabric Technology, with Mitsubishi Gas Chemical assisting efforts to raise and validate quality.
- Nvidia, Google, Amazon, AMD, and Qualcomm are competing for the same limited supply, and company visits to Japan did not yield additional output.
- Using lower‑grade glass cloth was discussed as a stopgap but would require extensive validation and is not expected to ease constraints for 2026 products, while new entrants in Taiwan and China struggle to achieve consistent, defect‑free production.