Supply lead times for multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCC) have stretched to as long as 24 weeks, about three times the production lead time of around 8 weeks, as utilisation rates at Murata and Samsung Electro-Mechanics stay in the 90 percent range. Broker iM Securities estimates first-quarter utilisation at 92 percent and 95 percent, respectively. Distributors in Taiwan cite longer lead times and low inventories, while production shifts toward AI server MLCC are pushing general-purpose orders to second-tier suppliers.

South Korea\'s second round of government support for graphics processing units has attracted five bidders, including first-round winner Naver Cloud and first-round loser Coupang, both re-entering. KT Cloud, Samsung SDS and Elice Group joined as new participants. The science ministry set evaluation criteria including economic feasibility, large scale, direct clustering, latest GPUs and service launch within the year. Officials plan evaluations and site inspections in April and May before selecting operators in May.