(Asian Tech Press) Recently, there are rumors that a Japanese MSG factory, grabs chip companies around the world by the throat. This is because the MSG company called Ajinomoto possesses an important material in the chip production process, ABF. To this day, almost 100% of the world’s chips are manufactured without this material.

When the news came out, people were in an uproar, and they sighed that this was a realistic version of the “butterfly effect”.

ABF (Ajinomoto Build-up Film) is a by-product of Ajinomoto’s production of MSG in Japan, and is gradually being used throughout the semiconductor industry because of its good insulation properties.

With the demand for high-end chips rising year by year, ABF began to become in short supply. According to industry sources, the ABF supply chain has been in trouble since the end of last year. And its delivery cycle time has been as long as 30 weeks, while ABF will continue to be undersupplied throughout this year.

According to industry sources, the market share of ABF reaches 70-80% or even more. Thus, ABF supply problems will inevitably lead to great impact on chip manufacturing to some extent. But ABF is only a cutting-edge technology, it has not yet formed a technological barrier, so people cannot talk about that ABF would grab global chip industry by the throat.

According to the professionals, Japan’s ABF will not grab the global chip industry by the throat. At most, it will have a short-term impact. And the breakthrough to solve chip shortage lies in the cooperation of global resources.