Minoru Inoue, Branch Manager of Semiconductor Materials Sales Branch, Sekisui Chemical

In 2025, aside from the slowdown in demand for power semiconductors due to the EV recession, the market conditions were generally the same as or better than the previous year. The temporary market stagnation caused by the advance demand in anticipation of tariff increases largely subsided in the first half of the period, and the market conditions returned to normal in the second half.

Towards 2026, the development direction of "decentralized AI" in AI server is becoming apparent, leading to a broad increase in demand from high-end to mid-range. Our related products are also expected to continue to see steady growth.

Next year, we will introduce multiple new build-up film products to the market. In AI servers, the development direction is shifting from solely focusing on speed to balancing power consumption and cost. For substrate boards, there is an increasing demand for materials that we specialize in, such as low Df and low Dk for electrical properties, as well as materials needed to achieve complex package structures like chiplets and component-encapsulating substrates, etc. To meet these expectations, we are preparing numerous development items.

We also use AI as a tool. SEKISUI group has officially launched its proprietary Material Informatics (MI) application, "RASIN" (R&D Accelerator for SEKISUI's innovative Notions), to accelerate and enhance materials development. RASIN is a no-code app, eliminating the need for programming skills, which allows researchers across the group to efficiently utilize MI technology to discover material properties and insights.

SEKISUI group will continue to strengthen its efforts in the MI field to consistently provide innovative materials required by the industry.