Ajinomoto raises AI chip-film prices 30% as profit jumps 127%

Ajinomoto (TYO: 2802), the 117-year-old Japanese maker of MSG, which also produces the film that insulates nearly every advanced AI chip, has raised its prices by about 30%. 

The company has also lifted its full-year forecast after it experienced a 127% increase in its quarterly revenue. 

How did Ajinomoto become critical to AI technology? 

Ajinomoto, which most people know for a seasoning invented in 1909, has now become an important pillar of the AI hardware supply chain through its product, Ajinomoto Build-up Film (ABF). It is a thin resin layer that provides electrical insulation inside the substrates of high-performance processors. 

Ajinomoto currently holds more than 95% of the ABF market, with Sekisui Chemical accounting for roughly the remaining 5%. A single AI accelerator can require between 8 and 16 layers of the film, which Nvidia, Intel, and AMD all rely on to insulate the microscopic wiring inside their chip packages. 

Ajinomoto revealed that the technology of ABF traces back to its amino acid chemistry research, the same science behind MSG. The film was first adopted by a semiconductor manufacturer in 1999 and has been refined since then to keep pace with denser CPUs. Notably, big tech is projected to spend more than $670 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026, as reported by Cryptopolitan.

The 30% price increase, which was confirmed in a May announcement and rolled out client by client, came after activist shareholder Palliser Capital had called for a hike above 30% in March 2026.

The ABF supply-demand gap will reportedly be near 10% in the second half of 2026, rising to 21% in 2027 and reaching 42% by 2028. 

Ajinomoto has committed more than 25 billion yen (about $150 million) to lift production capacity 50% by 2030, but a planned new plant in Japan is not expected to start up until around 2032. ABF shortages in 2020 and 2021 stretched substrate lead times and drove price surges of as much as 40%.

The company’s stock had climbed about 65% for the year by mid-2026, currently trading at 5,196 yen ($32.93), near the top of a 52-week range of 3,270 yen ($20.72) to 6,340 yen ($40.18).

How will this increase affect chipmakers and hyperscalers?

A 30% jump in ABF prices does not lift chip prices by the same amount, because the film is one input among many. Analysts estimate the increase could add 3% to 6% to substrate costs across the semiconductor industry.

That cost will also affect foundries and packaging firms before reaching the balance sheets of hyperscalers such as Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, and because newer GPU and ASIC designs pack in more ABF per chip, demand keeps outrunning even aggressive plans to add capacity.

The materials business and ABF sales for AI servers and networks have increased Ajinomoto’s first-quarter earnings to record highs and led to a 127% year-over-year surge in business profit.

Consequently, Ajinomoto has raised its consolidated forecast for the fiscal year ending March 2027, lifting projected sales to 1.732 trillion yen ($10 billion) and business profit to 202 billion yen ($1.2 billion). 

Electronic materials for AI, server, and network boards added 9 billion yen ($57 million) to the sales outlook and 5 billion yen ($31 million) to business profit, while the seasonings and frozen food forecasts were left unchanged as profit fell by 600 million yen in this quarter due to higher costs and a slow recovery from North American product recalls. 

Ajinomoto expects roughly 25 billion yen ($158 million) in added annual costs due to Middle East tensions. 

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