Shadowing Practice: Inside The Hidden Bottleneck In The AI Chip Boom - Learn English Speaking with Video

AI is driving a global race for more computing power.

But the pressure isn't just on the chips.

It's also on what sits beneath them, the ICE substrate.

Instantly we could deliver easily 20 -25 % more if we would have the capacity fast enough.

Once an overlooked part of the semiconductor supply chain, substrates are now in hot demand and growing in value.

The substrate and the entire technology around that will be the new road.

Austrian technology company AT &S makes components most of us will never see, but increasingly rely on.

It has two main businesses.

Its microelectronics division makes IC substrates the high -tech base layers beneath advanced chip packages that carry power and data between processes,

memory, and the circuit board.

Its electronic solution division makes high -end printed circuit boards used in smartphones, cars, medical equipment, and other devices.

Together, the two divisions generated nearly 1 .8 billion euros, about 2 .1 billion US,

in revenue in the financial year ending March 2026.

The company had been spending heavily on new factories and equipment, including this manufacturing complex in Kulim, Malaysia.

CEO Michael Melton took me inside the clean room to see

the little -known component playing a growing role in the AI

hardware race this is an actual substrate for artificial intelligence systems actual generations

so what you see on the surface are ten thousands of

metal bumps dice these are the connection points for in the middle you see it for a processor

and outside for memory and input

and output devices you have contact points on the back surface as well

and this is bound to a big pcb substrate here and here on the front surface you have the processors.

So what does it do?

It is a kind of a blood and nerve system.

Blood system means it provides power, like the blood is providing oxygen and sugar to our cells.

Here the substrate is providing electrical energy.

Additionally, we are talking about very high communication speeds

and that's the reason why all these things are so dense close together and this is what the substrate also is doing.

It connects all the hundreds of thousands of information points to each other.

As AI systems grow more powerful, substrates must handle more power, move more data and connect more components.

That is changing their design.

Are these substrates of the future getting bigger or smaller?

They're getting significantly bigger.

And the reason is we want to compress more

and more processors on a small area and more

and more memory you want to compress on a small area

so that the communication speed is even more advanced than it is today.

So in the future we will see substrates significantly bigger

so more and more components will be embedded here in the middle

and more and more information lines are necessary in the future.

The shift is starting to show up in AT &S's results After returning to profit in three months to June 2026,

the company forecasts revenue growth of 45 % to 55 % for the financial year ending March 2027,

with demand moving much faster than new production capacity.

Are you producing enough to meet AI demand?

How much more do you have to ramp up capacity?

Instantly, we could deliver easily 20%, 25 % more if we would have a capacity fast enough.

But we're actually ramping capacity.

We are doing it here in Kulim as well as in China.

But we're also ramping in Europe, in Austria.

So Austria is a special spot.

It's not the biggest one, but it's a spot where we do also R &D, where we have dedicated R &D production lines, what is unique in our industry.

A couple of years ago, the substrates market was under a lot of pressure because of overcapacity.

Now it's moving in the opposite direction.

Is substrates now becoming the biggest hidden bottleneck in the AI race?

Yeah, definitely.

The development of computer chips was so fast.

They are so fast now in their calculation procedures.

Also in the calculation procedures between these GPUs and CPUs, communication to memory.

that the communication speed, what is delivered by a substrate, is the limiting factor.

So innovation… is taking part in the substrate area.

So substrates are enabling better performance of AI centers in the future

and therefore there's a lot of work actually done in innovation and substrates making them bigger.

So bigger means more chips on the same substrate,

better intermediate communication between all the components and this is significantly enhancing the performance of AI calculation centers.

Is substrates becoming the new gold in the semiconductor business?

Yeah this is most probably the case.

Communication between the components becomes key and this is the substrate.

So the substrate and the entire technology around that, so how to bring components together,

this is what counts and there's a lot of money and value in this kind of a contribution.

So yes it will be the new gold.

Are your customers willing to pay such a big premium for your advanced substrates yes they do um

and they're not complaining they they know why

because we are co -developing most of the things

so our customers are deeply involved in the technology

and the technology challenges and the progress so

if you have new computer chip designs

and multiple chiplets on the same substrate of course it has to be a co -development with your customer

and the value add from this enhanced communication speed

and this better energy transport towards the chips is definitely worth the money and this is how our customers see it.

Geopolitics has also pushed up the prices of your raw materials like gold, copper, polymass.

Is that eating into your margins?

Are you able to fully pass it on to your customers?

I think there's a broad understanding in our industry that it has to be passed along the entire value chain.

So we are in a very close contact to our suppliers as well to our customers

and the entire industry understands that this has to be distributed along the value chain.

Otherwise, the industry would break down.

On the other hand, the value add of the new possibilities of artificial intelligence is worth this price increase.

So that's not the biggest discussion.

The big discussion is improvement in technology, improvement in yields, and just to be faster.

in 2021 the company announced plans to invest up to 1

.7 billion euros in the coulomb manufacturing complex in june 2026

it announced plans for a further 1 .5 billion to 2

billion euros of expansion here 18s says long -term customer commitment

will support the investment your coulomb operations started out with just one big customer, U .S chip giant AMD.

How much of your decision to set up a facility here in Malaysia is

because of the pressure from your customers that you face to diversify outside of China?

The pressure was high and for good reasons.

So you need this kind of diversification, not just for political reasons, but also for disaster recovery, for example.

So to have just one side, what fits it all, It causes a risk for the global economy at the end.

100

So having a second big foot in the door here in Malaysia is not just good for the initial customer AMD, it will be good for a bunch of other customers.

101

So what we're actually planning is, if we further build out Malaysia, we will host approximately five of the big customers, the well -known customers in the world.

102

Unfortunately, I take it in advance, I can't tell you the names.

103

And speaking of names, I need to press you on that, of course.

104

AMD is a major tier one customer.

105

What does your list of big name customers look like?

106

Do they include the hyperscalers, the EV makers?

107

Yes, it includes the hyperscalers as well as the makers and the producers of computer chips itself.

108

So all the big names you know from the Silicon Valley are our customers.

109

So we're talking about Intel, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Tesla.

110

You put the names on the table, so I can't comment on it.

111

But most of the big names are definitely our customers.

112

And with most of the big names, we are actually in the progress of defining and developing the future products.

113

Customers is one thing.

114

You're also working with partners like TSMC, MCOR.

115

They are setting up facilities in Arizona under the US CHIPS Act.

116

Is this something AT &S is also considering and exploring because you're part of the broader supply chain?

117

So actually, we have a lot of customers in the United States.

118

So far we are focusing in operations on the big plants we have

119

and the reason is our processes are different from those of the companies you named

120

and also from those of some of the chip manufacturers.

121

So our substrates are bigger, we have wet chemical processes and we need still a lot of employees.

122

And this is both from the availability and from the educational side.

123

This is easier in countries like Malaysia but still also in China.

124

So there is no direct plan now.

125

to do something in the u .s

126

but substrates are only part of the atns story its electronic solution division

127

which makes high -end printed circuit boards account for roughly half of group revenue in the financial year ending march 2026.

128

atns is up against pcb players including taiwan's compact and unimicron

129

and us -based ttm technologies the substrate market is dominated by established Asian players,

130

including Taiwan's Unimicron, Japan's EBITDA and Shinko Electric, and South Korea's Samsung Electromechanics.

131

I asked CEO Michael Merton where AT &S believes it can win.

132

Do you think AT &S has what it takes to become number one?

133

Definitely it will be a journey, but the potential to stay one of the leading companies

134

and to become one of the absolute dominant players is there

135

and the reason is we are not the biggest one today we are not financially the strongest one today

136

but we have capabilities which are extraordinary we have the capabilities of both sides

137

which are necessary for the future this is advanced pcd and substrates

138

and as we discuss the road maps down the way with

139

our customers both of these competencies will be used in the future.

140

You're a physicist by training, engineer at heart.

141

You're running a critical player in a global semiconductor supply chain.

142

With the industry moving this fast, what kind of leader is being demanded of you right now?

143

Of course, it's helping a lot that I'm an engineer physicist.

144

So to understand all the processes going on, you can't be cheated in certain terms of innovation and capabilities.

145

This, of course, is great to understand what the company is doing in detail.

146

On the other hand, it's also to provide a vision for the future of the company to the employees.

147

So they need a target, they need to be envisioned to the best performance.

148

So organizational development, implementation of innovation in the spirit of an entire company, this is absolutely key.

149

At AT &S you employ thousands of workers at a time

150

when AI is reshaping innovation

151

and the industry how do you balance innovation with concerns about

152

job security we're already using artificial intelligence in our operations for

153

better determination of processes for improvement for quality insurance this is

154

supporting the entire growth this is not a threat for the people

155

which are employed today can you do with less people

156

because of ai you can do more with the same amount of people that's the difference really

157

so you think the opposite yeah It will definitely help to stay with your employees

158

and to define not just our future as a company, but also their future.

159

It's also about education.

160

So we have an educational program for all employees worldwide to educate them in artificial intelligence usage.

161

We want to have all employees using AI systems to improve their work.

162

What's the biggest leadership lesson you've learned in your career that you take with you today as CEO of AT &S?

163

So first of all, you're never fast enough.

164

There were many people telling me, Michael, you are so fast.

165

You're maybe too fast.

166

Looking back, I would say, no, you are never too fast.

167

And most organizations, most employees are more capable than management is expecting it.

168

So they can have, not talking just about workload, I'm talking about changes, I'm talking about innovation, I'm talking about creativism, further development of their job profile.

169

The second one is strategy alone is nice, but strategy has to go hand in hand with execution.

170

And that means with organizational development.

171

So organization enables strategy and strategy enables organization.

172

But just to run a strategy without taking governance systems and organizational development also into account will fail.

173

So this is my second biggest loan.

174

As CEO of AT &S, what is your ultimate ambition for the company?

175

Where do you see the group three to five years from now?

176

Leading an advanced innovation for the entire communication infrastructure of not just artificial intelligence,

177

for advanced automation, robotics, space technology and communication.

178

Do you want to be the most profitable?

179

I think this will go hand in hand, yes.

180

Dr. Merton, thank you so much for talking to me.

181

Thank you very much.

182

Thank you.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 182 sentences and 2240 words to shadow. The speech runs for 14:43. The speaker talks at a natural 152 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 85% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
substrate noun	/ˈsʌbˌstɹeɪt/	An underlying layer; a substratum.
chip noun	/t͡ʃɪp/	A small piece broken from a larger piece of solid material.
innovation noun	/ˌɪn.əˈveɪ.ʃən/	The act of innovating; the introduction of something new, in customs, rites, etc.
component noun	/kəmˈpoʊ.nənt/	A smaller, self-contained part of a larger entity. Often refers to a manufactured object that is part of a larger device.
artificial adjective	/ˌɑː.tɪˈfɪʃ.əl/	Man-made; made by humans; of artifice.
circuit noun	/ˈsɝ.kɪt/	The act of moving or revolving around, or as in a circle or orbit; a revolution
enable verb	/ɪˈneɪ.bəl/	To make somebody able (to do, or to be, something); to give sufficient ability or power to do or to be; to give strength or ability to.
euro noun	/ˈjʊɹoʊ/	The currency unit of the European Monetary Union. Symbol: €
capability noun	/ˌkeɪ.pəˈbɪl.ɪ.ti/	The power or ability to generate an outcome.
processor noun	/ˈpɹɑˌsɛsɚ/	A person or institution who processes things (foods, photos, applications, etc.).
organizational adjective	/ˌɔː(ɹ)ɡənɪˈzeɪʃənəl/	Of, relating to, or produced by an organization.
calculation noun	/ˌkælkjuˈleɪʃn̩/	The act or process of calculating.
semiconductor noun	/ˌsɛmikənˈdʌktə/	A substance with electrical properties intermediate between a good conductor and a good insulator.
procedure noun	/pɹəˈsiː.d͡ʒə/	A particular method for performing a task.
connect verb	/kəˈnɛkt/	To join (to another object): to attach, or to be intended to attach or capable of attaching, to another object.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
set up verb	/ˌsɛt ˈʌp/	To make ready for use.
break down verb		To stop functioning.
build out verb		To develop or expand (a system, structure, project, etc.).
close together adjective		Near each other in time or space.
look back verb		To think of (past events) in retrospect (in hindsight).
pass along verb		To deliver a message or item to its intended recipient.
push up verb		To make (something) higher; to increase.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is bound · will be embedded · is delivered
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	have dedicated · has also pushed · you've learned

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 22 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, we're, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: innovation /ˌɪn.əˈveɪ.ʃən/, artificial /ˌɑː.tɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, organizational /ˌɔː(ɹ)ɡənɪˈzeɪʃənəl/, calculation /ˌkælkjuˈleɪʃn̩/, contribution /ˌkɑntɹɪˈbjuʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: innovation /ˌɪn.əˈveɪ.ʃən/, artificial /ˌɑː.tɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, capability /ˌkeɪ.pəˈbɪl.ɪ.ti/, organizational /ˌɔː(ɹ)ɡənɪˈzeɪʃənəl/, semiconductor /ˌsɛmikənˈdʌktə/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like substrate, chip, innovation.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?