This data-file profiles a dozen leading companies in capacitors, which control two-thirds of the $30bn pa global market. Many companies also produce other passive electronic components, sensors and MOSFETs. Hence will the rise of AI, especially transient-heavy data-centers, pull on demand?
Capacitors store small quantities of energy, electrostatically, as charge builds up on parallel electrode plates, and creates an electric field in the dielectric material between them. This is used to store energy and smooth electrical signals.
For example, a single smart phone will contain around 1,000 MLCCs. While capacitors also feature in the circuit diagrams for power-electronics such as inverters, buck/boost converters, EV fast-chargers, FACTs and harmonic filters.
The global capacitor market stands at $30bn pa, split across multi-layer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs), aluminium-electrolytic capacitors, polymer films, energy-density tantalum oxides, and supercapacitor categories such as electric double layer capacitors (EDLCs).
The global capacitor market is relatively competitive, as the top five companies control c50% of the market (average value chain globally is 50%) and the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index is around 700 (avearge globally is 950).
Hence industry-wide EBIT margins in 2024 only averaged 7%, while higher margins tended to be achieved by larger and more integrated companies among the world’s leading companies in capacitors.
AI data centers potentially use 5-10x more capacitors than conventional data-centers, embedded within DC converters, and for short-term energy storage, buffering DC buses, and preventing the overload of batteries, generation and grids.
Hence AI applications are emerging as a major demand driver in the capacitor industry, in order to smooth out erratic AI load profiles, and we have screened a dozen leading companies. It is remarkable how many of the companies are now citing AI-related demand growth, albeit counterbalancing weaker demand from electric vehicles.
Leading companies in the $30bn pa capacitor market are Murata (Japan), Yageo (Taiwan), Taiyo Yuden (Japan) and Vishay (US, also producing MOSFETs). Notes on each the world’s leading companies in capacitors, are in the data-file.