Ajinomoto Fine-Techno
HQ JP95% shareSOLE SUPPLIER
Subsidiary of Ajinomoto Group; sole commercial producer of ABF (Ajinomoto Build-up Film) used in ~95% of CPU and GPU substrates worldwide. ABF was invented from waste byproducts of MSG manufacturing.
manufactured · input
ABF Substrate (Ajinomoto Build-up Film)
Insulating film substrate for flip-chip BGA CPU/GPU packaging; sole-sourced from Ajinomoto (Japan); required for all Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, Apple chips; production capacity was critical bottleneck during 2020-22 chip shortage
4
Source countries
7
Companies
1
Goods affected
0
Claims on record
What depends on it
Goods that need this input
1 essential American goods rely on abf substrate (ajinomoto build-up film) somewhere upstream in their supply chain.
Where it comes from
Source countries
Share of global supply, by country.
| Country | Share of supply |
|---|---|
| JPJapan | 55% |
| TWTaiwan | 25% |
| KRSouth Korea | 12% |
| ATAustria | 5% |
Who makes it
Supplier companies
7 companies produce abf substrate (ajinomoto build-up film).
Ajinomoto Co.
HQ JP90% share
World's largest MSG and amino acid producer AND sole-source supplier of ABF (Ajinomoto Build-up Film) — the insulating substrate used in advanced CPU/GPU packaging for all leading chips
Ibiden(IBIDF)
HQ JP25% share
Japan's leading manufacturer of high-end ABF flip-chip BGA substrates for Intel, AMD, and Nvidia CPUs and GPUs. Dominant player alongside Shinko Electric; both received Japanese government subsidies to expand capacity.
Unimicron Technology(3037.TW)
HQ TW18% share
Taiwan's largest IC substrate manufacturer; major supplier of ABF substrates for AI GPU packaging alongside Ibiden (Japan). Expanding capacity for AI chip demand.
Shinko Electric Industries
HQ JP12% share
Major Japanese ABF substrate manufacturer; key supplier for Intel processors. Fuji Electric holds a significant stake. Alongside Ibiden, forms a near-duopoly on high-end CPU package substrates.
Kyocera Corporation(6971.T)
HQ JP10% share
Japanese electronics/ceramics group; crystal devices and oscillators (incl. former AVX/Kyocera Crystal Device line).
Nan Ya Plastics Corporation
HQ TW
Taiwanese plastics and chemicals company (TSE: 1303, HQ Xinzhuang, New Taipei City; ~NT$200B revenue; subsidiary of Formosa Plastics Group); world's largest producer of bisphenol A (BPA) — the key raw material for BPA-based epoxy resins and polycarbonate. Nan Ya Plastics produces BPA at its Mailiao and Linkou facilities using acetone and phenol feedstocks, then converts some BPA into downstream epoxy resins for coatings. Formosa Plastics Group (Taiwan's largest industrial conglomerate, founded by Y.C. Wang — the legendary Taiwanese plastics entrepreneur who built a multibillion-dollar empire from PVC) is both the world's largest PVC producer and the world's largest BPA producer through Nan Ya Plastics. The same BPA that is the centerpiece of endocrine-disruption concerns (leaching from polycarbonate bottles, can linings) and the same BPA that goes into industrial epoxy protective coatings for marine and industrial use comes from Nan Ya Plastics' Taiwanese facilities. Wang's empire — which spans Formosa Plastics (PVC), Formosa Chemicals & Fibre (fiber and chemicals), Nan Ya Plastics (BPA, PCB substrates), and Formosa Petrochemical (refining) — is one of the most vertically integrated petrochemical conglomerates in Asia.