Fuji Electric, Japan's largest vending machine manufacturer, has utilized its cooling technology to develop an energy-efficient cooling system for artificial intelligence data centers that consume a large amount of power. This system is said to be capable of reducing energy consumption by 85%. The technology was originally used to cool carbonated beverages, tea, and coffee, and this development marks the latest trend in Japanese industrial groups competing to transform into suppliers of key components for artificial intelligence infrastructure.

Fuji Electric manufactures 80% of Japan's vending machines. The company has redesigned its cooling technology, originally used in vending machines, to launch data center cooling systems. Cooling servers account for 30% to 40% of the energy consumption in data centers, presenting a significant opportunity for Japanese companies that are experts in air conditioning and cooling technologies. With this move, Fuji Electric joins other Japanese industrial groups such as Panasonic, Mitsubishi Electric, and Sumitomo Electric, which are repositioning themselves as suppliers of key components for artificial intelligence infrastructure.

Fuji Electric's technology originated from efforts to improve the efficiency of vending machines after the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011. At that time, vending machines became a symbol of energy waste, and Shintaro Ishihara, who was the governor of Tokyo at the time, called for the complete closure of vending machines to save electricity. This call prompted Fuji Electric and Denso, a supplier to Toyota, to develop a new cooling system. In 2015, the research team developed an ejector using carbon dioxide as a refrigerant, which eliminates the need for a compressor and saves 20% in energy consumption. Hideki Shirai, who is responsible for promoting this technology to data centers at Fuji Electric, stated, "It is not enough to simply expand existing technologies."

Most cooling systems use compressors, which consume a large amount of electricity to convert the refrigerant into high-temperature, high-pressure gas. Fuji Electric's ejectors utilize waste heat to drive the refrigerant through precisely designed nozzles, increasing the pressure through fluid motion. However, this technology has never been adopted in vending machines due to the high installation costs, considering that vending machines themselves are worth only a few thousand dollars. Shirai stated, "We know this technology is effective." "But it's very difficult to make it work effectively in vending machines. So the idea began to form: what if we applied it to another industrial field?"

This electrical equipment supplier, headquartered in Tokyo, plans to sell over 10 billion yen (approximately 61 million US dollars) worth of ejector systems to data centers by 2030. The company already sells 100 billion yen worth of data center-related components each year, such as switching equipment. Playing the role of a supplier for artificial intelligence components, along with improvements in the profit margins of its energy component business, has driven Fuji Electric's stock price up by nearly 47% in the past year, with the company's valuation reaching 13.9 billion US dollars.

Alex Coddowell, the research director at data infrastructure research institution Oro, described this technology as “promising,” but still “truly in its emerging stage.” The data center cooling market is shifting from traditional systems that use water and ethylene glycol or hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants to direct liquid cooling, which involves circulating liquid coolants directly to heat-generating components such as CPU and GPU. Fuji Electric’s systems can be used in direct liquid cooling applications. Jet technology performs better in regions of Japan where summer temperatures often exceed 35 degrees Celsius, as well as in high-temperature areas like Southeast Asia. However, Coddowell noted that competing technologies that utilize waste heat—absorption chillers manufactured by Japanese companies Kawasaki, Ebara, and Yaskawa—have advantages over Fuji’s systems in data center applications.

Goldman Sachs analyst Ryosuke Harada expressed doubts about Fuji Electric's ability to enter the large-scale data center market in the United States. He said, "The technology may be impressive, but commercialization is equally important." "Ultra-large enterprises have largely locked in the next-generation data center architecture for the next two to three years, so new entrants will likely need at least the same amount of time to make meaningful progress."