Nvidia pushes PCB material competition upstream, widening gap in HVLP4 copper foil Odaily Planet Daily News: Citrini analyst Jukan stated in an article on X platform that with the expansion of AI infrastructure demand driving an increase in high-end PCB orders, there are new bottlenecks in the upstream CCL supply chain; Following T-glass fiberglass cloth, HVLP4 copper foil is expected to become a key limiting factor from the second half of the year. Industry insiders say that NVIDIA and its major clients are once again directly involved in material supply coordination to ensure that the large-scale production and shipment plans for the next generation of AI servers are on track. Customers led by NVIDIA are now bypassing CCL manufacturers and directly engaging with upstream material suppliers to manage glass fiber cloth and copper foil on their own, providing suppliers with clearer order visibility, shifting to a direct consignment model, and locking in key material production capacity more than a year in advance. The supply-demand gap is expected to exceed 40% in 2026 and will still reach 25% in 2027. With the migration of major AI servers and high-speed computing platforms from HVLP2/HVLP3 to HVLP4, the demand for HVLP4 copper foil is on the rise, and the supply shortage is expected to reach 1500 tons by 2026; Mitsui Metal and Co Tech are expanding production, but the HVLP4 gap is expected to widen to 2500 tons by 2027.