Murata to Raise Prices on High-End MLCCs

According to Bloomberg, Japan's passive components giant Murata Manufacturing has begun internal discussions on raising prices for high-performance multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) used in AI servers to address surging demand.

Murata is currently assessing the "real demand" from AI applications to determine whether a price increase for high-end MLCCs is necessary. Given the potential broad impact on the market and industry, the company aims to complete this evaluation in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025 (Q1 2026) and make a final decision by the end of March.

MLCCs are valued for their small size, high-frequency tolerance, long lifespan, and reliability, and they play a critical role in power stabilization, decoupling, filtering, and signal integrity circuits. AI servers and AI acceleration cards, with their high computational density and power requirements, need far more MLCCs per system than standard servers—sometimes tens of thousands per machine—to ensure stable operation. The launch of NVIDIA's latest Vera Rubin servers is expected to sharply increase demand for these high-end components.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics highlighted in its Q4 earnings briefing on January 25 that AI server motherboards and automotive MLCC demand is expected to rise significantly this year, prompting increased infrastructure investment. The company noted that MLCCs will be a core focus in 2026, with customers increasingly using 1kV or higher voltage MLCCs, which could lead to tight supply. Samsung's factories will maintain high utilization rates to meet this demand.

Bloomberg Intelligence analysts report that Murata is the world's largest MLCC manufacturer, holding over 40% of the global market, and roughly 70% of the high-end MLCC segment for AI servers. In Q3 FY2025 (Q4 2025 calendar), Murata's computing business revenue rose 26.5%, with MLCC production utilization at 90–95%, a level expected to continue into Q4.

Murata President Norio Nakajima revealed that orders for high-end MLCCs are twice the current production capacity, making it impossible to meet all requests. Due to the precision and complexity of high-end MLCCs, ramping up production is not quick, and the tight supply may persist over the next two years. This supply-demand imbalance is a key factor behind the potential price adjustment.

High-end MLCCs for AI servers typically measure about 2mm long and 1.25mm wide, stacked from thousands of thin layers. Manufacturing challenges such as eliminating dust and air voids between layers limit capacity expansion, making MLCCs an emerging bottleneck for AI growth.

Nakajima emphasized that understanding chipmakers' and data centers' roadmaps gives Murata confidence that the current AI investment boom will continue strongly for at least 3–5 years. He predicts that next-generation AI chips will require tens of times more high-end MLCCs, and the company's ability to meet this demand will be critical for future performance.

Given the current situation, Murata is expected to raise prices on its high-end MLCCs to manage surging demand.

Notably, following last year's price increases for tantalum capacitors and early 2026 adjustments for chip resistors and ferrite beads, MLCC pricing has started to rise, with some mainland China channels reportedly increasing spot prices by up to 20%. Industry watchers anticipate that YAGEO and Walsin Technology may also adjust MLCC pricing, following their recent resistor price hikes of 15–20% effective February 1.