China Securities Co.,Ltd.: TLVR chip inductor unit value increases, industry space expands rapidly

China Securities Co., Ltd. has released a research report stating that chip inductors will face multiple drivers in the future. With the increase in AI chip shipments, rising chip power, and upgraded inductor performance, the AI chip inductor market size will expand rapidly. The growth rate of market size = chip shipment multiple power increase multiple value increase per unit multiple. It is expected that the market size will increase from 2.4 billion in 2025 to over 30 billion in 2028. The rise in chip power brings linear growth in AI chip inductor usage. The standard operating voltage of GPU and TPU chips is around 1V, and the core Vcore has long remained in the range of 0.7-0.85V; chip current = TDP/core voltage. With voltage remaining unchanged (1V or below 1V), power increases will bring proportional amplification of current. If the current per inductor remains unchanged, the required number of inductors will increase linearly. As chip power consumption further increases in the future, the number of inductors used per chip will continue to rise. The third power supply faces four major constraints, and AI chip inductors are undergoing iterative upgrades: 1. Loss issues: as current grows larger, losses become greater; 2. High heat dissipation pressure: high power brings greater heat generation; 3. High current requires more devices for current shunting, but motherboard space is limited, and the third power supply space is very crowded; 4. High transient issues, namely Vdrop: rapid current changes cause voltage drops along the transmission path. If a single drop is too large, it will affect the normal operation of the GPU, but load power fluctuations are becoming increasingly severe. There are three major directions for AI chip inductor upgrades: With the upgrading of computing power and power growth, inductor usage increases significantly. The increase in quantity faces conflicts with the available area on PCB boards and the problem of declining power supply efficiency. Therefore, AI chip inductors have three major upgrade directions: single-phase inductors moving toward multi-phase inductors, lateral power supply turning toward VPD vertical power supply, and discrete inductors turning toward TLVR inductors. Multi-phase TLVR inductors are the general trend. TLVR replaces each phase's independent inductor with a 1:1 transformer inductor with a secondary-side coupled winding, and uses a compensation inductor to couple each phase together. When a load step occurs, the coupling loop allows all phases to respond together more quickly; in steady state, each phase can still maintain the required ripple. Therefore, TLVR inductors effectively improve the ability to handle power supply for high-power GPUs and support rapid response to load changes. At the same time, as current rapidly increases to above 1000A, multi-phase TLVR inductors will become necessary. Driven by the triple factors of volume, price, and structure, the AI chip inductor market is expanding rapidly, with growth exceeding 10 times. In the future, chip inductors will face multiple drivers. With the increase in AI chip shipments, rising chip power, and upgraded inductor performance, the AI chip inductor market size will expand rapidly. The growth rate of market size = chip shipment multiple power increase multiple value increase per unit multiple. It is expected that the market size will increase from 2.4 billion in 2025 to over 30 billion in 2028. Material performance determines device performance, and integrated material-device companies have more advantages. Integrated companies with upstream raw material layouts can not only ensure stable supply of raw materials, but also meet the rapid iteration of downstream demand. They are more favored by customers, thereby gaining higher industry chain barriers, deeper customer chain binding, and greater room for growth.