Resonac CEO highlights surging AI chip demand while navigating China supply chain risks

Resonac Holdings, the Japanese semiconductor materials company formerly known as Showa Denko, is riding one of the most consequential demand waves in the chip industry. CEO Hidehito Takahashi spoke at Bloomberg’s Look Ahead 2026 event in Tokyo about the company’s AI-driven growth trajectory and the geopolitical tightrope it’s walking with China.

For anyone tracking the AI hardware supply chain, Resonac is the kind of company that rarely makes headlines but quietly holds enormous leverage. The firm commands roughly 50% market share in non-conductive films used in High Bandwidth Memory chips, the exact components that power the GPUs training large language models and running inference workloads across data centers worldwide.

The invisible backbone of AI chips

Resonac’s non-conductive films are essential for HBM chips, which stack memory dies vertically to achieve the bandwidth that AI workloads demand. The company holds that 50% market share through a joint venture with SK Materials.

Beyond films, Resonac also produces liquid encapsulants, the materials that protect semiconductor packages from thermal stress. In June 2026, the Japan Patent Office upheld the company’s patent for a novel liquid encapsulant technology designed specifically for 2.5D semiconductor packages.

China: opportunity and minefield

Takahashi’s comments at the Bloomberg event addressed the elephant in every semiconductor boardroom: China. Resonac is actively diversifying its sourcing of rare earth materials away from China, designed to reduce exposure to potential export restrictions or supply disruptions.

On the other hand, Resonac announced increased production capacity within China on December 17, 2025. The rationale is straightforward: China’s domestic semiconductor ambitions are enormous, and Beijing is pouring resources into building an indigenous chip supply chain. Resonac wants to sell materials into that ecosystem, even as it reduces its dependence on Chinese raw materials.

Building the consortium, building the moat

In September 2025, Resonac launched the JOINT3 consortium, a group of nearly 30 companies focused on developing next-generation chip packaging technologies.

Investors have clearly noticed the positioning. Resonac’s stock gained approximately 50% in 2025, a surge that tracks closely with the broader AI semiconductor rally but also reflects the company’s specific market dominance in HBM materials.

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