In 2025, the global PCB industry advanced amidst challenges. Demand from artificial intelligence and electric vehicles emerged as the core growth engines, while cost pressures and supply chain restructuring drove profound changes within the sector. This report aims to outline the key trends of the past year and provide a forward-looking perspective on the new, technology-driven landscape for 2026.
2025 PCB Industry Annual Review
1. Market Size and Growth Data
The global PCB market size is projected to reach USD 89-91 billion in 2025, with a year-on-year growth of approximately 3.5-4.2%. While this represents an improvement over the 2.1% growth in 2024, it remains below the pre-pandemic average annual growth rate of 5-7%. Regional performance shows significant divergence:
- China: Maintains its position as the world’s largest producer, with an output value of about USD 42-44 billion, accounting for 46-48% of the global total and growing 4.5% year-on-year.
- Southeast Asia: Benefiting from supply chain diversification strategies, PCB output in Vietnam, Thailand, and other regions saw significant growth, with rates reaching 8-10%.
- North America/Europe: Driven by policies promoting reshoring of high-end manufacturing, growth was approximately 3.2%, primarily concentrated in specialized fields such as defense and aerospace.
2. Evolution of Technology Structure (Comparison)
- Traditional Multilayer Boards: Share decreased to 45% (48% in 2024), with growth slowing to 1.8%.
- HDI/Any-Layer HDI: Share increased to 28%, growing 5.2% driven by smartphones and wearable devices.
- IC Substrates: Fueled by explosive demand for AI chips and HBM memory, this segment grew 12.5% year-on-year, becoming the fastest-growing sector.
- Flexible/Rigid-Flex Boards: Driven by automotive electrification and the adoption of foldable display devices, growth reached 6.8%.
3. Application Market Dynamics
- Consumer Electronics: Demand experienced a moderate recovery. Smartphone PCBs evolved towards higher-layer-count HDI (averaging 10-12 layers).
- Automotive Electronics: As EV penetration exceeded 35%, demand for automotive PCBs grew 7.5%, with high-frequency, high-speed boards for ADAS sensors showing particularly strong growth.
- AI Infrastructure: Demand for PCBs used in AI servers and switches surged. The unit price of high-end products is 3-5 times that of standard servers.
- Industrial/Medical: Steady growth of 4.2% driven by industrial automation and telemedicine.
4. Key Changes and Challenges
- Material Cost Pressure: Significant price fluctuations for raw materials like copper foil and resin throughout the year compressed average corporate gross margins by 1.5-2 percentage points.
- Accelerated Technological Upgrades: Requirements for 800G optical modules and 112G high-speed transmission placed higher demands on PCB signal integrity.
- Deepening Environmental Compliance: The second phase of the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) increased costs associated with green manufacturing.
- Regional Capacity Shift: The share of overseas production capacity for Chinese manufacturers increased from 18% in 2024 to 25% in 2025.
2026 PCB Industry Outlook
1. Core Growth Forecast
The global PCB market size is expected to exceed USD 95 billion in 2026, with growth accelerating to 4.5-5.5%. Within this:
- IC Substrates will continue to lead growth, with a projected rate of 15%+.
- The share of automotive electronics PCBs will surpass 15% for the first time.
- AI-related PCB demand is forecast to grow by approximately 20%, becoming the largest incremental market.
2. Technology Evolution Directions
- Higher Density Interconnects: Line width/spacing moving towards 15/15μm, with wider adoption of mSAP processes.
- Material Innovation Breakthroughs: Penetration rate of low-loss materials (Dk<3.0, Df<0.003) in high-end applications expected to reach 30%.
- Advanced Packaging Integration: Embedded PCBs and chip-embedded substrates moving from prototyping to small-batch applications.
- Intelligent Manufacturing: AI-based defect detection coverage to increase to 70%, optimizing production costs by 8-12%.
3. New Application Market Opportunities
- AI at the Edge: AI PCs and AI smartphones will drive motherboard upgrades, increasing unit prices by 20-30%.
- Automotive Architecture Transformation: Adoption of zonal controller architectures will promote increased PCB layer counts and HDI application.
- LEO Satellite Internet: Accelerated deployment of constellations like Starlink will begin to drive volume demand for high-frequency PCBs.
- Energy Transition: Demand for heavy-copper boards in PV inverters and energy storage systems will grow by 9%.
4. Supply Chain Reshaping Trends
- Regional Self-Sufficiency: Local procurement ratios in North America and Europe will increase to 35%+.
- Higher Technology Barriers: Oligopolistic competition is emerging in high-end product segments (e.g., FCBGA substrates).
- Sustainable Development: Green factory certifications are becoming a basic requirement for major clients, with environmental investment share expected to rise to 3.5%.
Future Expectations and Recommendations
1. Strategic Recommendations for Enterprises
- Technology Focus: Concentrate resources on breaking through 2-3 high-growth niche segments (e.g., IC substrates, automotive millimeter-wave radar boards).
- Global Layout: Establish “China+1” production capacity in regions like Southeast Asia and Mexico to diversify geopolitical risks.
- Industry Chain Collaboration: Establish joint development mechanisms with material suppliers and equipment manufacturers to shorten new product introduction cycles.
- Digital Transformation: Complete comprehensive production data collection by 2026 to lay the foundation for smart factory construction.
2. Industry Ecosystem Outlook
By the end of 2026, the PCB industry is expected to present a clearer hierarchical structure:
- First Tier (Technology Leaders): Companies mastering core technologies for advanced packaging substrates and high-frequency, high-speed boards, maintaining gross margins above 25%.
- Second Tier (Scale Manufacturers): Enterprises with cost and capacity advantages in mass markets like automotive and consumer electronics.
- Niche Champions: Companies establishing technological barriers in specific fields such as medical and defense.
3. Risk Warnings
- Technology Iteration Risk: Emerging packaging technologies may exert substitution pressure on traditional PCBs.
- Overcapacity Concerns: Homogeneous competition in mid-to-low-end products may intensify.
- Structural Talent Shortage: The gap for high-end talent in areas like simulation design and material R&D may widen to 25%.
4. Long-Term Vision
With the advancement of frontier technologies like 6G pre-research and quantum computing, the technological value of PCBs as the fundamental carrier of electronic products will continue to increase. The industry should seize the critical window from 2026 to 2030 to complete the transformation from “manufacturing” to “intelligent manufacturing + services,” securing a more important value node in the global electronics supply chain.
Conclusion
Looking ahead to 2026, the PCB industry is entering a new phase, fundamentally driven by AI. Growth will be heavily concentrated in cutting-edge fields such as advanced packaging, high-frequency/high-speed applications, and automotive electronics. Success will depend on an enterprise’s ability to make decisive strategic choices in technological innovation, global footprint optimization, and green, intelligent manufacturing to establish a competitive advantage in an increasingly fragmented market.
