Driven by supply shortages and bottoming supplier inventories, server memory makers now hold absolute pricing power, leading to continuous and substantial upward revisions in contract prices. Although suppliers are shifting mobile capacity to servers to boost supply, robust demand fueled by cloud providers' expanding capital expenditures on AI and data centers keeps the supply gap wide open. Consequently, the long-term price outlook remains bullish.
As U.S. export controls extend from chips to AI infrastructure, the traditional optical interconnect industry is undergoing supply chain restructuring. While optical modules are not subject to blanket bans, they are now governed by system‑level controls. By leveraging its semiconductor ecosystem and investing in SiPh, CPO, advanced packaging and testing capabilities, Taiwan can capture North American supply‑chain de‑risking demand and reposition itself as a strategic AI partner.
Global Server Market – Trends and Outlook for 2Q26
Driven by the demand for both AI and general-purpose servers, enterprise SSDs are facing a severe supply-demand gap, leading to continuous surges in contract prices. Meanwhile, to address the pain point of high AI inference costs, suppliers are accelerating the rollout of low-latency, high-performance SSDs. This is driving a transformation in storage architectures and creating a high-margin blue ocean market.
Global CSPs expand AI infrastructure investment, with Google and Microsoft leading on TPU and GPU racks while Chinese peers diversify amid geopolitical constraints.
Memory pricing hits a historic inflection as server DDR5 profitability overtakes HBM; CSP long-term contracts lock in floors, signaling a sustained upward pricing trend into 2027.
NVIDIA shifts AI competition from computing performance to system interconnects, leveraging CPO and silicon photonics to break I/O bottlenecks. By integrating high-speed fabric with advanced packaging, it redefines data center efficiency and accelerates the optical supply chain transition.
AI server demand stays robust with GB leading H1; Rubin ramps in Q3. ASIC share dips slightly as GPU dominates. Component shortages cap general server growth. Liquid cooling competition intensifies.
Arm's AGI CPU marks a strategic shift from IP licensor to platform provider, targeting AI data centers and accelerating Arm's gains against x86.
Driven by AI and general servers, industry value grows robustly. Despite geopolitical risks and custom chip delays, NVIDIA and AMD's push for premium integrated racks significantly boosts average prices. Meanwhile, advanced packaging and high-bandwidth memory remain in tight supply, with liquid cooling officially becoming the mainstream standard.
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