The next phase of artificial intelligence is being built inside advanced manufacturing facilities around the world.
Behind every AI model and hyperscale data center is a complex hardware ecosystem requiring unprecedented levels of precision, reliability and throughput. As AI infrastructure investment accelerates globally, manufacturers across the semiconductor and electronics ecosystem are rapidly evolving both technologies and production processes to meet growing demand.
Recent visits with leading PCB manufacturers in China highlighted just how quickly this transformation is unfolding.
The visits reinforced a key principle: Innovation accelerates when companies deeply understand not only their customers, but also their customers’ customers and the environments where value is ultimately created.
That visibility is becoming increasingly important as AI-driven PCB architectures grow more demanding.
Advanced AI boards now require dramatically tighter tolerances, more advanced materials and significantly longer drilling cycles than traditional electronics applications. In some cases, boards require continuous drilling operations lasting days rather than hours, where even a single defective hole can impact yield.
These changes are increasing the importance of precision motion, spindle reliability, beam steering accuracy, thermal stability and process control throughout advanced manufacturing operations.
Importantly, many of the most valuable insights emerged not from conference rooms, but from walking factory floors and observing production firsthand, engaging with engineering and manufacturing teams. That direct engagement provided deeper understanding into evolving customer pain points and future technology transitions, as well as industry-wide capacity constraints.
The conversations also reinforced a broader reality: AI is creating ripple effects across the entire technology value chain.
From semiconductor manufacturing and inspection to advanced PCB drilling, robotics and automation, enabling technologies across the ecosystem are becoming increasingly critical to supporting next-generation computing infrastructure. Our technologies support multiple stages of that ecosystem, helping customers solve complex precision and automation challenges in high-growth markets.
These visits further underscored the importance of local presence and customer intimacy. In rapidly evolving industries, close technical collaboration, responsiveness and strong regional support are becoming key differentiators.
As AI adoption continues accelerating globally, companies that stay closest to customers, and closest to where value is being created, will be best positioned to anticipate change and accelerate innovation, helping to shape the future of advanced manufacturing.