Is It True That iPhone May Face Production Difficulties Next Year Due to Japan’s Refusal to Produce One More Piece of Cloth?
https://eu.36kr.com/en/p/3665624161543049
Publish Date: 2026-02-02 00:21:00
Source Domain: eu.36kr.com
Will you possibly be unable to buy an iPhone next year?
This is not an alarmist statement. Just a couple of days ago, the media broke a bombshell, revealing that tech giants like Apple, Qualcomm, and NVIDIA are collectively caught in a panic – they’re worried about running out of fabric.
How desperate are they?
Last autumn, Apple sent a special envoy directly to Japan and stationed at Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company, asking them to stabilize the production of BT resin substrates.
For Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company to stably produce BT resin substrates, one major prerequisite is an adequate supply of a material called fiberglass cloth.
That’s not all. There are even reports that Apple once directly approached Japanese government officials, hoping they could coordinate with suppliers to increase fiberglass production to ensure the smooth progress of its products in 2026.
On the other hand, NVIDIA and AMD are also busy. They’ve also sent people in a hurry to Japan to urge orders.
What exactly is this fabric that makes trillion – dollar giants so humble? And why is it so scarce?
Ultimately, fiberglass is a very common yet essential key material in modern electronic devices.
What the big manufacturers are eager for is actually high – end glass fiber cloth (Glass Cloth), which is mainly used in the core support structure of high – performance printed circuit boards (PCBs) and advanced chip packaging substrates.
In a PCB, fiberglass is used in two aspects, the inside and the outside.
On the inside, which is the core board part, the factory will soak multiple layers of fiberglass cloth in resin (such as epoxy resin), let it harden, and then attach copper foil on both sides. This forms the most basic thickness and hardness of the PCB.
On the outside, the PCB is formed by pressing together core boards covered with different circuits. Between different layers, fiberglass is needed for separation.
If you think of it as a multi – layer cake, the fiberglass cloth is like…
