ZAP // Toto; Ajinomoto
Japanese company Toto, famous for its high-tech toilets, captured investors’ attention for manufacturing essential components for memory chips. Food giant Ajinomoto produces an insulating material used in advanced semiconductor packaging.
The AI boom isn’t just benefiting chipmakers and big tech companies. In Japan, it’s handing the proceeds to a toilet maker and a condiment giant.
As the search for AI chips skyrockets, investors are betting on companies in the supply chain of semiconductors — even if they are best known for their bathrooms and soup broths.
A, Japanese manufacturer of bathroom crockery famous for its high-tech toilets with bidets and heated seatscaptured the attention of investors. The company produces electrostatic clamps, critical components used in the manufacture of NAND memory chips.
The sharply in recent months, driven by AI-related demand, notes .
Last week, the British fund Palliser Capital classified Toto as “the Most Undervalued and Ignored AI Memory Beneficiary“, according to news provided by Bloomberg and the Financial Times.
After it emerged on Tuesday that Palliser Capital had taken a stake in the company and was pushing Toto to give greater visibility to its chip components business, shares of the toilet maker rose more than 5%.
The Japanese company’s securities accumulate a appreciation of more than 54% in the last year. But it’s not just Toto.
The Japanese food giant, best known for its umami condiments and soup bases, has become an unlikely investment in AI infrastructure. The company produces an insulating material used in advanced semiconductor packaging.
The last rAjinomoto’s financial results reveal strength beyond their main food business. In the nine months ending in December, the company recorded a increase of 8.9% non-liquid profitwhile operating profit grew 5.6% year-on-year.
The gains were partially driven by the “Health and Others” segmentwhich includes electronic materials used in semiconductors, the company said in an earnings release released in February.
After Ajinomoto published its results on February 5, the company’s shares rose 13%. The shares have appreciated by more than 56% in the last year.
Not all non-tech companies are benefiting equally from the AI boom. THE Daikinknown worldwide for its air conditioning systems, supplies high purity chemical materials used in the manufacture of semiconductors.
Recently, the company revised its prospects downwardsinvoking a uncertainty surrounding US tariffs as a pressure factor on demand.
Japanese air conditioning manufacturer reduced its profit forecast operational growth by about 5%, to 413 billion Japanese yen — about $2.6 billion — for the fiscal year ending in March.
“Operating profit was significantly affected by the drop in demand of semiconductors, decreasing 44.6% year-on-year to 18,102 million yen,” stated the company in its February financial report.
“As net sales of fluoropolymers fell on an annual basis despite the Group’s concerted efforts to capture strong new demand in the data center sector, due to stagnation in the US and Chinese construction markets and the significant global impact of delays in the recovery of semiconductor demand,” he added.
The company stated that it intends mitigate the impact through price increases and cost reductions. Daikin shares fell 8.4% in Tokyo following the release of its financial results.
