Japan's biggest vending machine maker has reworked its refrigeration technology to offer power-hungry AI data centres an energy-efficient way to cool their servers. Fuji Electric, which makes 80 per cent of Japan's vending machines, has created a cooling system for data centres that it claims can cut energy consumption by 85 per cent, using a technology originally designed to chill sodas, teas and coffees.
The push is the latest by a Japanese industrial group to reinvent itself as a key supplier of components used in AI infrastructure, joining the likes of Panasonic, Mitsubishi Electric and Sumitomo Electric. Cooling servers accounts for 30 to 40 per cent of data centres' energy consumption, presenting a big opportunity for Japanese companies specialising in air conditioning and refrigeration.
Fuji Electric's technology was born out of efforts to make vending machines more energy efficient after they became a symbol of waste following the Fukushima nuclear meltdown in 2011. The Tokyo-based electrical equipment supplier is aiming to sell more than ¥10bn ($61mn) worth of ejector systems to data centres by 2030. It already sells ¥100bn a year in data centre-related components such as switchgears.
The company's role as an AI "picks and shovels" supplier, as well as improving margins in its energy components business, has helped Fuji Electric's shares rise almost 47 per cent in the past year. The company is valued at $13.9bn.
Source: Financial Times Companies · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing