Although these days the news of MLCC Price Trend, MLCC price is keeping increase, most people think it won’t be a very big price increase finally. However, after June, high-capacity chip MLCC prices jump unexpectedly sharply, and the mlcc capacitor price used in most industrial switches was increased more than five times only for the single month, and this has further increased the cost pressure on supply chain costs. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the actual influence of the major price increase of MLCC in the industrial switch industry.
1.Why does MLCC price increase in 2026
1.1 Now most people think that AI server is the key reason of the increase. People in the industry think that under the current MLCC Price Trend, the MLCC amount of the single AI server can reach 15,000 and 25,000, which is 10 times the size of the previous ordinary server. And in the new generation computing power platform of NVIDIA, the high capacity MLCCs accompanying a single GPU has increased from 200 to nearly 5,000. The manufacturers such as Murata, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, and Sun Electric, whose shifting murata mlcc price and allocation policies dominate market supply, have reserved over 90% of their production capacity for their overseas AI and automotive-grade major customers. From May, they have successively suspended the orders for some general and industrial-grade high-capacity products. Chinese manufacturers (including Taiwan manufactures) have reflected obvious price growth by extending delivery times and prioritizing the delivery of high-priced orders. The supply of high capacity products has been continuously tightened.
1.2 it is the shortage of capacity.
Due to the long tough period of MLCC under the ongoing MLCC Price Trend, there haven’t any production increase in the industry from 2024 to 2025. And high capacity MLCC production cycle is at least 12 months, even more than 18 months. So once there is a serious shortage of goods, the market sees obvious mlcc price increase and prices jump sharply immediately.
2. How many pieces are used per single switch? How much the price will incease in future?
Take Rayin Technology’s IS201 series industrial switches as a example, A motherboard without POE typically uses approximately 500 capacitors. Capacitors with a capacitance of less than 1uF account for about 75%, is about 350 pieces. Capacitors with a capacitance greater than 1uF but less than 10uF，is about 60 pieces. And capacitors with a capacitance of 10uF or more is about 90 pieces.
Cost estimate before the price increase:
Capacitance | Qty | Unit Price（In RMB） | Total |
Below 1μF | 350 | 0.003 | 1.05 |
1uF-10uF | 60 | 0.02 | 1.2 |
Over 10μF | 90 | 0.06 | 5.4 |
The total price is 7.65RMB, and for a switch, the proportion of this in the total cost of the switch is relatively low.
At present, the price increase is around 6 to 8 times. In the future, it may exceed 10 times. So the cost of capacitors in a single switch would be over 50 RMB. This increase is beyond the affordability of any industrial switches.
The total price is 7.65RMB, and for a switch, the proportion of this in the total cost of the switch is relatively low.
At present, the price increase is around 6 to 8 times. In the future, it may exceed 10 times. So the cost of capacitors in a single switch would be over 50 RMB. This increase is beyond the affordability of any industrial switches.
3. What may happen in the future capacitor price hike?
As a senior hardware engineer who have experiened the drastic mlcc price increase of more than 10 times in 2018 MLCC, this round of MLCC Price Trend price hikes is like a historical cycle. How to implement cost control without reducing the product specification and not sacrificing the reliability standard, is a special test for the R&D of a manufacture and the ability of supply chain management.
Some manufacturers, in order to save costs, may adopt the following ways:
3.1 From the pressure value and the precision to reduce specification. For example, in the 12v circuit, the previously used may be a 25v capacitor, now using a 16v replacement. The accuracy of the capacity decreased from 10 percent to 20 percent.
3.2 Reduce the usage. Review the margins for capacitors used in power filtering and interface coupling, and remove any that can be eliminated. Only keep the ones that are absolutely necessary.
3.3 Replacement. Replace the large package with a high capacitance part number with a smaller package (e.g. 0805 replaced by 0603/0402); for non-high-frequency filtering scenarios, use a number of low capacitances to replace a single high-capacitance one, or replace some high-capacitance MLCCs with tantalum capacitors or solid-state aluminum electrolytic capacitors.
At the same time, there will also be an increasing number of speculative phenomena within the industry. Some manufacturers, in an attempt to minimize costs, even went beyond the safety limits of hardware design: for instance, they selected 6.3V capacitors for the 12V power supply circuit; they even directly removed the key filtering and decoupling capacitors at the power input and high-speed interface, sacrificing the long-term reliability of the equipment.
By these ways their products may pass basic tests in a normal temperature laboratory environment, but they are likely to cause equipment failures in industrial settings with wide temperature fluctuations, power surges, and long term full load operation, thereby leading a unstable operation in the customer's site operation, they transform the cost pressure into the operational risks for the customers.
4. FAQ
5.The insist of Rayin Technology
Facing the significant price hike of this round of capacitors, Rayin Technology will always adhere to the bottom line of the quality, and never switch for short term cost control at the cost of sacrificing product reliability. We adhere to the original specifications and industrial materials, strictly implement the inspection standards of the components, and we will fully guarantee the performance consistency of each industrial switch and the long term stability.
