AI Data Centres Are Taking The Capacitors Carmakers Need
Chinese carmakers report a 20-30% global shortage of circuit boards and ceramic capacitors, with prices more than tripling in a year as AI data centres take the supply. (August 22, 2026 - 11:34 am)
These are not exotic parts. A ceramic capacitor costs a fraction of a cent, and a modern car with driver assistance uses thousands of them. The AI boom has reached the cheapest components in a car.
"The demand... is data centres." — Industry officials expect at least a year before global supply can be built up to meet what AI infrastructure and carmakers now want simultaneously.
Memory is the larger half of the same squeeze. Automotive-grade memory rose roughly 180% in three months, with Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron directing more than 80% of advanced-node capacity to AI servers, contributing to the shortage that pushed Pixel prices up.
Cars are also asking for far more of it. A basic level two driver assistance system needs about 8GB, while urban navigate-on-autopilot features can require more than 300GB.
Buyers are paying already. More than ten Chinese electric vehicle makers have raised prices or cut discounts, General Motors has warned about cost increases, and the same shortage has been working through consumer hardware all year. It ended the $599 Mac Mini and pushed Microsoft to shrink Windows for machines with 8GB of memory.
European carmakers are exposed to identical capacitor, board, and memory pricing, in a market where electric car prices have already stopped falling. The policy point is uncomfortable. Europe directed its semiconductor money towards leading-edge fabs, while the parts actually holding up production lines are passive components and automotive memory that no industrial strategy treated as strategic.
The cheapest thing in the vehicle now sets what it costs. That is a supply chain lesson the industry has learned twice in five years, and it has not yet changed what anyone stockpiles.
By Darius Popa
Technology enthusiast and intern at The Next Web, contributing to research-backed content and investigating new technologies and global events. Interested in business and how the narrative and perception of technology is shaped.