Your weekly guide to the chokepoints in the AI supply chain
The Chokepoint
Sep 3, 2026
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6 min read
AI boards are getting thicker, denser and harder to drill. The tiny tools making the holes are wearing out faster.
Aug 28, 2026
AI needs power faster than the grid can deliver it. Fuel cells are becoming the workaround.
Aug 20, 2026
7 min read
MLCC cost per rack is up 182% into VR200. The rack itself only doubled.
Jul 8, 2026
The AI shortage is spreading to chips designed forty years ago, made in fabs nobody builds anymore.
Jul 1, 2026
The 2nm bottleneck is somewhere else. One etch step, three suppliers.
Jun 24, 2026
5 min read
Three companies make the world's big gas turbines. Two blade manufacturers decide how fast they can build them.
Jun 17, 2026
The AI fiber shortage is a glass-rod shortage and you can't make the rods on a GPU schedule.
Jun 10, 2026
AI's optical future depends on a test step only one company can run at scale
Jun 3, 2026
America's AI grid runs through one Pennsylvania steel mill
May 27, 2026
No high-end processor ships without a film made by Ajinomoto.
May 19, 2026
Power semiconductors are the new chokepoint.
May 12, 2026
Where the rent flows when light becomes the chokepoint
May 6, 2026
4 min read
The rent is migrating from the fab to the substation.
