TTM to invest $400 million in AI PCB capacity in China and Malaysia
TTM Technologies is putting another USD 400 million into expanding production of advanced PCBs for AI data centres. Rather than building new plants, the company will expand four existing facilities in China and its plant in Penang.
The investment comes on top of the USD 1.2 billion TTM had already committed to invest between 2025 and 2029, according to a press release from the company. That brings its announced investment plans for the period to around USD 1.6 billion. The additional capacity will mainly be used for TTM’s asymmetrical N+M interconnect manufacturing technology products for data centre infrastructure, hyperscalers and networking customers. According to TTM, ongoing discussions with long-standing customers point to higher demand ahead.
“The AI boom has increasingly placed significant demands for capacity within the AI hardware supply chain. TTM anticipates this market to remain highly dynamic and we will continue to work closely with our customers to define additional expansions as required. The rapid growth in demand requires us to make rapid capacity increases across several of our facilities,” said Edwin Roks, President and CEO of TTM.
To bring the capacity online faster, TTM is skipping new construction in favour of what it calls a “rapid ramp” brownfield approach. Existing production space will be optimised and fitted with new equipment, rather than building greenfield sites that take longer to bring into production.
TTM has not said how much capacity the investment will add or when it is expected to come online. The company says it will provide more details during its third-quarter earnings call.
“By leveraging our existing footprint in China and Penang to scale our advanced technology, we believe we are shortening the time between investment and revenue such that our customers can scale without unnecessary or prohibitive bottlenecks,” said Jim Walsh, COO of TTM.
The investment adds to a series of expansions TTM has announced over the past year. These include its Ultra-HDI facility in Syracuse, New York, and the planned acquisitions of Swiss Technology Group in Zürich and ILFA in Hannover, which mark the company’s entry into European manufacturing. Most recently, TTM completed the USD 1.1 billion acquisition of software-defined radio maker Epiq Solutions.
TTM has not specified which Chinese facilities are involved, but the company currently operates four commercial-sector plants in the country: in Dongguan, Guangzhou, Huizhou and Zhongshan. Its Malaysian plant is located in Simpang Ampat, Penang.