The Newest Player in A.I.’s Supply Chain Is a Toilet Maker

Casey, would you believe that Toto, the Japanese company best known for its toilet seats and bidets, – Mhm. – is becoming a major player in the global semiconductor supply chain? – Is that right? Well, because, you know, everybody who works on A.I. has to go to the bathroom. – [Laughs] No, this is about some advanced ceramics that Toto makes that help to stabilize silicon wafers during chip production, which is part of the supply chain and the way that you create these GPUs that go in these gigantic data centers. Toto, the humble toilet company, is playing a major role in that. And so there’s an activist investor in the U.K. who sent a letter to the board of Toto, exhorting it to make more of its advanced ceramics. Basically, stop making so many toilets and start making chip parts. – Yeah, the next time you use a Toto toilet, I want you to just realize that it could have been making A.I., and I want you to reflect on that. And maybe I don’t actually don’t know what you would do with that information, but it is something you could think about. Kevin, I think this is turning into a [expletive] storm. – [Laughs] – No, I think this is a good sign for Toto. It’s a high-growth industry. And I actually have a new slogan that I think they should use for the semiconductor supply chain part of their business. You want to hear it? – What’s that? – Toto: We put the P U in GPU. – OK. That’s enough.