Maruwa, a 200-year-old Japanese company, is among the big winners of the boom generative artificial intelligence. Its ceramic technology, which dissipates heat in electronic components, is popular in energy-intensive data centers.
The firm comes from a family of ceramic artists with a history dating back to the Edo period in the early 1800s. Once famous for its porcelain dishes used in traditional Japanese banquets, Maruwa branched out into the industry ceramic components for electronics in the 1960s, a pivotal era during which the country of the Rising Sun transformed into an industrial society.
Today, the company holds 60% of the global market for heat dissipation substrates for optical transceivers.
No one can claim this level of expertise
Its ceramic components are used in printed circuits and semiconductors, with Maruwa specializing in electronics that operate at very high temperatures. They are particularly used in data centers, even more so with the increasing use of artificial intelligence, which requires immense computing power and requires significant cooling capacities.
Thus, the demand for heat dissipation substrates, whose role is, commonly, to absorb the heat generated by optical transceivers and dissipate it to prevent overheating, is expected to reach a value of 12.3 billion dollars by 2027.
Dominating the unshared market, Maruwa could see an annual growth rate of 60% over the next 5 years for its server technology, estimates Goldman Sachs analyst Mitsuhiro Icho. Competition with the Japanese firm is proving particularly difficult, because no one can today claim such a level of expertise.
“ As the company has over 200 years of history as a ceramic supplier, all the knowledge and technology accumulated since the early 1800s form the core of its competitiveness », Comments Mitsuhiro Icho.
Maruwa shares hit record high
Maruwa’s good performance is reflected on the stock market. Its shares have almost doubled in the space of a year. Its market capitalization now stands at $2.75 billion. More and more investment banks are closely following its development.
In addition to the AI boom, the company is also expected to benefit from the transition from combustion engine to electric in the automotive industry. Inverter power modules in electric vehicles operate at very high temperatures, and Maruwa components help dissipate their heat.
Source : The Financial Times
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