Sakai Chemical shifts from geisha face paint to AI server linchpin

Sakai Chemical, a century-old Japanese firm once known for geisha makeup and cosmetic ingredients, is now a key supplier of thermal materials for AI servers. Its high-thermal-conductivity fillers go into gap pads between chips and heatsinks, pulling heat out fast. The company expects its electronics materials revenue to triple to ¥30 billion by the fiscal year ending March 2031. That segment is still only about 3% of total revenue but growing quickly, with customers including Resonac and Denka. The article doesn't disclose market share or single-customer concentration, so it's hard to gauge how irreplaceable Sakai really is in the supply chain.