AI is shifting the semiconductor supply chain's next bottleneck from wafer fabrication and HBM memory to ABF substrates — a lower-profile but critical packaging material used in high-end CPUs, GPUs, ASICs, and networking chips.

South Korean semiconductor equipment maker Hanwha Semitech is reportedly preparing to supply fan-out panel-level packaging (FO-PLP) equipment for advanced chip packaging in the second half of 2026, with the systems expected to be used in the mass production of networking chips for SpaceX.