PCBs & Substrates

Unimicron is a leading Taiwanese PCB and IC substrate manufacturer whose revenue mix has shifted toward high-end ABF substrates and HDI. The core thesis is that AI server demand may lift the cycle, but heavy capex, volatile margins, and weak free cash flow make the current price hard to justify. Research rating Avoid: a capable cyclical manufacturer, but the valuation leaves no acceptable margin of safety.

Ibiden is a global leader in high-end IC package substrates (ABF/FC-BGA), with its electronics business contributing about 59% of FY2025 total sales of JPY 416.2 billion, core customers including Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA, and a mature ceramics/DPF business alongside a heavy AI/HPC-driven expansion cycle of roughly JPY 500 billion over FY2026-28, backed by a 57.3% equity ratio and net cash of about JPY 100.4 billion. The core thesis is that Ibiden owns valuable process know-how, yield capability, customer qualifications, and an early position in AI/HPC substrates, but its capital intensity, customer concentration, and mixed business profile make the current valuation demanding. Research rating Watch: a strong company worth studying, but not a price that offers enough margin of safety today.

WUS Printed Circuit is China's largest high-end printed circuit board manufacturer, focused on data communications and data-center PCBs. In 2025 it held roughly 7% of the global data communications PCB market and 10.2% of the data-center PCB market, both ranking first globally, while revenue reached RMB 18.945 billion, net profit attributable to shareholders reached RMB 3.822 billion, and five-year profit CAGR was about 38%. Research rating Watch: a strong AI-infrastructure manufacturing leader, but the current price leaves little verifiable margin of safety.