{"slug": "wall-street-s-next-ai-trade-is-smaller-than-a-grain-of-rice-one-big-idea", "title": "Wall Street's next AI trade is smaller than a grain of rice: One Big Idea", "summary": "Wall Street investors are shifting focus to multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) as the next potential bottleneck in AI server production, following a sell-off in chip and memory stocks. Goldman Sachs projects the AI-server MLCC market could grow more than fourfold by 2030, driving rallies in Asian component makers like Taiyo Yuden and Murata before recent pullbacks.", "body_md": "The AI trade is getting its first real stress test since Wall Street discovered the bottleneck playbook. Chips are [sliding](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/article/the-2-trillion-chip-sell-off-hits-a-make-or-break-level-chart-of-the-day-155000822.html), memory is [cracking](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/article/micron-samsung-sk-hynix-just-dragged-memory-stocks-into-a-bear-market-154549356.html), and investors are already hunting for the next scarce part of the server rack.\n\nMemory chips showed how fast that playbook can work, as poster child Micron ([MU](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/MU/)) surged nearly 1800% off the April 2025 lows. But the market is already moving on to the next question: What else inside an AI server cannot scale fast enough?\n\nThe latest answer is the part of the AI trade that is smaller than a grain of rice.\n\n[Multilayer ceramic capacitors](https://m.samsungsem.com/global/product/passive-component/mlcc.do), or MLCCs, are tiny components that help smooth voltage, filter electrical noise, and keep chips from glitching when power demand surges. AI servers do not draw power in a calm, steady stream. GPUs and custom chips ramp up, pause, and ramp up again as they process huge calculations.\n\nThat makes MLCCs a natural target for Wall Street's bottleneck hunt.\n\nA [late-May Goldman Sachs thesis](https://x.com/zerohedge/status/2060558847735939447) put capacitors forward as the next potential AI squeeze after memory. Goldman's work put MLCCs behind only GPUs and memory among the biggest cost items in AI server builds, and estimated the AI-server MLCC market could grow more than fourfold from fiscal 2025 to fiscal 2030.\n\nThe scale explains the chase. A single advanced AI server rack can require hundreds of thousands of MLCCs. If every next-generation AI rack needs more of them and suppliers cannot add capacity quickly, a boring component can suddenly become a pricing-power trade.\n\nThat is what investors have been chasing.\n\nSelected Asian MLCC and passive-component stocks tied to the AI server supply chain have surged off the March 30 lows. Taiyo Yuden ([6976.T](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/6976.T/)), Walsin ([2492.TW](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/2492.TW/)), Samsung Electro-Mechanics ([009150.KS](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/009150.KS/)), Yageo ([2327.TW](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/2327.TW/)), Murata ([6981.T](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/6981.T/)), and TDK ([6762.T](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/6762.T/)) all rallied hard, with several more than tripling before the latest pullback.\n\nThis embedded content is not available in your region.\n\nNow comes the harder part.\n\nSeveral of those names are down more than 20% from 52-week highs, and a few are off more than 30%. That puts them in the same AI hardware unwind hitting chips, memory, and the broader semiconductor complex. However, capacitor stocks are not moving in one clean wave — a sign this is still more an emerging theme than a fully formed basket trade.\n\nThe next test is whether the strongest MLCC suppliers can stop falling, rebuild support, and keep seeing pricing power.\n\nGoldman added fuel in early July, with [fresh upgrades across the MLCC and capacitor supply chain](https://x.com/zerohedge/status/2073951678492021116), including Yageo, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, and LG Innotek. Goldman pointed to AI server demand, rising component content, and tighter supply as drivers of higher earnings estimates.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/wall-street-s-next-ai-trade-is-smaller-than-a-grain-of-rice-one-big-idea", "canonical_source": "https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/wall-streets-next-ai-trade-is-smaller-than-a-grain-of-rice-one-big-idea-100100993.html", "published_at": "2026-07-09 10:02:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-09 10:14:21.027647+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-infrastructure", "ai-chips"], "entities": ["Goldman Sachs", "Micron", "Taiyo Yuden", "Walsin", "Samsung Electro-Mechanics", "Yageo", "Murata", "TDK"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/wall-street-s-next-ai-trade-is-smaller-than-a-grain-of-rice-one-big-idea", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/wall-street-s-next-ai-trade-is-smaller-than-a-grain-of-rice-one-big-idea.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/wall-street-s-next-ai-trade-is-smaller-than-a-grain-of-rice-one-big-idea.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/wall-street-s-next-ai-trade-is-smaller-than-a-grain-of-rice-one-big-idea.jsonld"}}