Toilet Maker Toto's Shares Get Unlikely Boost From AI Rush (yahoo.com) 28
An anonymous reader shares a report: Shares of Japanese toilet maker Toto gained the most in five years after booming memory demand excited expectations of growth in its little-known chipmaking materials operations. The stock surged as much as 11%, its steepest rise since February 2021, after Goldman Sachs analysts said Toto's electrostatic chucks used in NAND chipmaking will likely benefit from an AI infrastructure buildout that's tightening supplies of both high-end and commodity memory.
[...] Known for its heated toilet seats, the maker of washlets has for decades been part of the semiconductor and display supply chain via its advanced ceramic parts and films. Its electrostatic chucks -- which it began mass producing in 1988 -- are used to hold silicon wafers in place during chipmaking while helping to control temperature and contamination, according to the company. The company's new domain business accounted for 42% of its total operating income in the fiscal year ended March 2025, Bloomberg-compiled data show.
[...] Known for its heated toilet seats, the maker of washlets has for decades been part of the semiconductor and display supply chain via its advanced ceramic parts and films. Its electrostatic chucks -- which it began mass producing in 1988 -- are used to hold silicon wafers in place during chipmaking while helping to control temperature and contamination, according to the company. The company's new domain business accounted for 42% of its total operating income in the fiscal year ended March 2025, Bloomberg-compiled data show.
I guess (Score:5, Funny)
they're flush with cash.
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Obligatory citation if you read Japanese (Score:2)
Leaving it here as a continuation of the attempted jokes, but resorting to (detested) Romaji (since Slashdot.jp with Japanese support is long gone), I have to cite Toire No Himitsu (The Secrets of Toilets) about the development of the washlet. That is Volume 22 in the Gakken Manga De Yoku Wakaru Shiri-zu (Understand deeply via manga from school research (the publisher)). Each volume in the series has a corporate sponsor and almost all of them include some corporate history, but I'm pretty sure that Volume 2
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They're the #2 company in the business!
Diversification (Score:5, Interesting)
Oh ok, so a Japanese toilet company also happens to make tools necessary for semiconductor production. I guess that's why these 100-year-old Japanese companies still exist. They're good at diversification.
> Electrostatic chucks ("e-chucks") provide the necessary stability and uniform clamping force to ensure accurate alignment and deposition of thin-film layers on glass substrates. With e-chucks, semiconductor manufacturers have a much easier time achieving their desired level of precision and uniformity.
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See also:
https://www.ajinomoto.com/stor... [ajinomoto.com]
In the 1970s the [Ajinomoto] Group began exploring applications for the co-products of our umami seasoning production. We knew that some of these substances had excellent material properties and could potentially be used for resins and coating agents for the electronics industry. Processors were getting smaller and faster, and printed circuit board makers needed better insulating materials to maintain performance. Ink was the preferred substrate but applying and drying it slowed production, attracted impurities, and created byproducts that were harmful to the environment. In 1996 a CPU maker approached the Group about developing a film-type insulator using amino acid technology. The moment we had been waiting for had arrived.
Welp! (Score:3)
I guess the stocks are no longer in the toilet(s).
"Known for its heated toilet seats" (Score:4, Interesting)
Aside from TV show jokes about overly complicated Japanese toilets [youtube.com], I've literally never encountered a heated toilet seat actually in use anywhere in the US. Heated car seats - yes, toilet - no.
Most homes here tend to have some sort of central heat (which I've heard is still relatively uncommon in Japan, they tend to use space heaters to heat individual rooms separately), which mostly limits the ass freezing experience of winter toilet use. And if you do have a bathroom that stays particularly cold, those "handy heater" mini ceramic space heaters that hang directly from an outlet tend to do the trick nicely (with the added benefit of warming the entire bathroom, not just the toilet seat, so you're not stepping out of the shower into a freezing room).
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Aside from TV show jokes about overly complicated Japanese toilets [youtube.com], I've literally never encountered a heated toilet seat actually in use anywhere in the US. Heated car seats - yes, toilet - no.
I bought a bidet during the Great Toilet Paper Famine of 2020. It's more than a basic unit so it needs an electric outlet (for unlimited warm water), so you might as well have a heated seat at that point (and night lighting, both of which are welcome additions). There are probably more of them out there than you think, people just don't tend to talk much about toilets.
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Also some employee bathrooms in high tech companies in the Bay Area. It's wise to check the settings before using them, as the previous occupant may have left the seat on "excessively hot" and the bidet water jet on "prison rape".
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Dunno about today, but my father made one for a job he did as an electrician in Nebraska in the 50s. You see, winter weather in Nebraska is sub-zero, and it was an outhouse (built from brick, with a flush toilet, but dammit! the shitter belongs 50 feet down the path from the house - the rancher was . . . a bit eccentric).
So he bought the cheapest hollow toilet seat he could find, and lined it with (incandescent) Christmas tree lights. Worked like a charm, and provided a bit of light on the long, cold winter
Re: "Known for its heated toilet seats" (Score:2)
I have a Toto toilet - you non heated seat weenies are missing out! And thatâ(TM)s before you account for how accurately it can clamp your balls in place.
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You can get them in Australia, although they're by no means common. But I wouldn't immediately associate Toto with heated toilet seats. Their core business is toilets and urinals in general. INAX is their biggest competitor in Japan.
"advanced ceramic parts" (Score:1)
"advanced ceramic parts" - for the toilets or the electronics?
Asking for a friend.
Can't wait (Score:2)
I guess the AI toilet will recognize my ass and adapt automatically to my preferred water temperature and pressure in the future.
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If not, he's holding it wrong.
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The AI toilets for sale do a chemical analysis for your poop to warn of you health problems.
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Better hope it doesn't hallucinate too badly. Explaining second-degree burns on your family jewels might be a bit difficult.
they make good toilets (Score:3)
I've had to replace many toilets over the years. In my wife's bathroom she wanted the colors to match & the only matching toilet I could get locally was a Toto. The very best (& most expensive) toilet I've installed. It's super quiet & has had no problems.
The American Standard had Fluidmaster (the king of flush!) flush & fill valves & both had to be replaced in the first year. Pain in the ass but American Standard had excellent CS.
I got no clue what this has to do with chips or AI though. Maybe I could RTFA.
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In the process of doing some literature research on ceramic processes, I found a very interesting report from Toto on what I recall as energy and materials use in a US factory of theirs. We have two things that toilet production needs: the right raw materials for porcelain, and natural gas to fire it.
I recall an episode of the Simpsons where they were visiting Japan. Their hotel room toilet announced "I am honored to accept your waste."
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Our American Standard so-called "Champion" model died within six months. We had to get a new ring gasket for it to fix "ghost flushing syndrome," a common defect for this model.
It might flush down 24 golf balls but the flushing action doesn't swirl and scour the toilet, leaving a mess.
Our new Toto does swirl and scour the toilet but at almost twice the price.
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"ghost flushing syndrome"
Yep, same problem with the flush valve. American Standard sent me a replacement valve. The fill valve stopped shutting off. They sent a replacement for that also. Fluidmaster was once the very best. Champion & American Standard once had impeachable quality. But this is what we get with the multinational corporate structure with 10-20% cost-out requirements. The team had better find that money every fucking year, even from ancient product lines that have already been cost reduced into errrr the
yah it's a shitty bubble (Score:1)