IC substrates are Schmid's more relevant growth driver today because demand is already high and rising. Schmid customers Ibiden and Unimicron are expanding capacity with NVIDIA support; higher order intake supports the prospect of more equipment orders. Its balance sheet has improved, and the risk/reward looks attractive at current levels despite volatility. Glass substrates may take another one to two years to matter commercially. This is a personal assessment, not a buy recommendation. x.com  … Show more

SCHMID is the lone European name in AI substrate tooling, over 90% of which ships from Asia, and its plating and wet-process lines feed the advanced-packaging step every AI chip passes through. The June 9 Zhongshan campus deal nearly doubles its regional capacity. It is a speculative flyer only: revenue fell 38% y/y to about €67M, net debt is ~€83M against €4M cash, and losses exceed sales, yet it trades at 5.1x EV/sales. A dilutive raise before the ramp pays off is what kills it. x.com 

SCHMID Group's risk-reward does not yet compensate for its capital structure and competitive position, though its AI recovery is real. Up to 104 million diluted shares versus 65 million outstanding, plus €154 million net debt, put it above 60x EV/EBITDA. Ten customers make up 60% of revenue; MKS Instruments leads. It gets more defensible if orders convert as guided, convertibles shrink without new issuance, a tier-one substrate maker enters qualification and no new China export curbs hit. x.com  … Show more

Nvidia's co-investment supports Samsung Electro-Mechanics' substrate expansion because it expects capacity to be tight when it needs supply. Samsung Electro-Mechanics says dedicated compute and switch substrate supply to Nvidia starts this year, with double-digit annual volume growth; by 2028 Nvidia orders should take a substantial share of its package-substrate capacity. Global customers fund part of its 6.78 trillion won expansion, but new Sejong output starts in September 2028. x.com 

The move from organic ABF substrates to glass is becoming a necessity for Nvidia's largest packages, and Nittobo, Schmid, LPKF and Ibiden sit at its choke points. Nittobo has a near-monopoly on low-CTE T-Glass fiber amid a shortage; LPKF's LIDE drilling and Schmid's inline systems ride US and EU sovereign AI pushes; Ibiden bridges ABF and glass core. Timing is the risk: TSMC pushed panel-level CoPoS to Q4 2030, so Rubin Ultra may use hybrid glass stiffeners, and Nittobo has already run 9x. x.com  … Show more

Schmid Group is moments from dilution, with almost no room for error in its cash runway. That financial position is critical to any comparison of glass-substrate plays, even as a post the author replies to argues upstream suppliers gain pricing power after Intel's CFO called glass a margin headwind. x.com 

AT&S's Kulim expansion with AMD confirms the customer-funded model: AMD locks in capacity while AT&S keeps the margin. The €1.5-2.0B of capex is funded by long-term customer commitments, and the shares jumped about 29% on the news. As the only European maker of high-end IC substrates, AT&S is positioned as Europe's answer to the ABF substrate bottleneck. x.com 

LPKF faces mostly lumpy, cancelable pilot-line revenue until 2029, while the market already prices in much of its glass substrate option. Volume demand for its glass equipment hinges on TSMC and NVIDIA choosing glass for CoPoS panel packaging; that wave lands around 2028-29 and could slip to end-2030 on warpage and yield issues. Absolics' and Semco's 2027 plans are qualification. The real signals are TSMC's CoPoS tool-vendor selection and an LPKF order above EUR 10M naming a Tier-1 customer. … Show more

Unimicron's profit leverage to rising ABF substrate prices should stay significantly positive and last longer than the market expects, even if customers absorb only part of the increases. As a high-end ABF leader, its high fixed costs and utilization leverage limit any squeeze from costlier T-glass. The T-glass bottleneck and long capacity cycles could extend the benefit for a year or two, and its high Nvidia and ASIC share adds pricing power, though execution on hikes and utilization matters. … Show more

Glass-core substrate suppliers such as Corning, LPKF, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, SKC and AGC remain early, as the sector is still some way from shipping real volume. Part 4 of @GyujinAAIG's glass research shows how far each group is, mapping substrate makers on a one-to-ten readiness scale and chip designers on a separate one-to-fourteen scale. x.com