- Ceramics manufacturer Maruwa is supporting cool data centers amid the AI boom.
- According to the FT, the company's stock price has doubled in the past year.
- Maruwa's 200-year history in the ceramics field contributes to its competitiveness.
The AI boom has led to a surge in data center construction, consuming large amounts of energy.
Annual data center power consumption is expected to increase from 17 gigawatts in 2022 to 35 gigawatts by 2030, according to McKinsey & Company. According to CNET, 1 gigawatt is enough energy to power 750,000 homes.
McKinsey estimates that about 40% of that energy goes toward cooling servers.
This is probably welcome news for the centuries-old Japanese ceramic makers who started making tableware.
According to the Financial Times, the stock price of Maruwa, which makes ceramics for circuit boards and semiconductors, has doubled in the past year. And since April, the company's stock price has been at “all-time highs.”
The company says its strength lies in building materials that dissipate heat, meaning they transfer heat from heat sources operating at high temperatures to the surrounding environment.
“The demand for heat dissipation is rapidly increasing due to high-speed communications in data centers, and we have a strong competitive advantage in heat dissipation,” a Maruwa spokesperson told Business Insider.
According to the company, “we expect next-generation high-speed communications, including those related to generative AI, to be the biggest driver of growth for our business over the next few years.”
Maruwa's competitive advantage stems from its long history. According to the company's website, its origins date back to the early 19th century, when it first manufactured tableware for Japanese cuisine, but shifted to electronic components in the 1960s.
Mitsuhiro Icho, an analyst at Goldman Sachs, told the FT: “The company has a history of over 200 years as a ceramic supplier, and all the knowledge and technology accumulated since the early 1800s is at the core of the company. It's about competitiveness.”
