This MSG Factory is Helping AI Become Smarter

The development of increasingly intelligent Artificial Intelligence (AI) relies on contributions from various parties. Nvidia and OpenAI are certainly familiar names in AI intelligence development. However, beyond these two companies, AI’s current level of intelligence is due to the role of MSG factories. It may sound odd, but that is the fact. The renowned Japanese MSG or cooking seasoning producer, Ajinomoto, is helping AI become smarter. This MSG producer has conducted research in amino acid chemistry for decades. This portfolio has enabled Ajinomoto to develop Ajinomoto Build-up Film (ABF), a specialised insulator material used in advanced semiconductor packaging. Actually, ABF is not part of the silicon chip that powers AI. This material is used on the substrate, the connecting layer or board, which carries electrical signals and power from the AI chip to the motherboard or other systems. Without a substrate, chips used in AI servers, data centres, and even gaming GPUs would not function. During the global chip shortage in 2020-2021, limitations in the production capacity of advanced substrates like those made by Ajinomoto also became a major obstacle in the supply chain. Further explanation about ABF can be found on Ajinomoto’s official website. Interestingly, besides Ajinomoto, AI intelligence is also supported by Toto, known as a producer of premium bathroom fixtures. This ceramic is produced through a sintering process, heating the material to very high temperatures to create dense, durable components resistant to contamination. The sintering process results in ceramics with extremely high purity. These ultra-pure ceramics are used in equipment handling silicon wafers in cleanrooms. Thus, when chips are made, silicon wafers or thin sheets serving as the chip base are processed in a super-clean room (cleanroom). In this room, the number of airborne dust particles is strictly controlled, even said to be far cleaner than a hospital operating theatre. Equipment handling silicon wafers, such as robot handlers, wafer holders, and so on, uses the ultra-pure ceramic components made by Toto. Ultra-pure ceramics are essential because the transistor structures on chips are made extremely small (nanometre scale). A single microscopic dust particle can cause problems, such as scratching the wafer, disrupting circuit patterns, or most fatally, total failure of wafer production. If not ultra-pure, the ceramics could contain traces of metals or chemicals that might react when exposed to certain temperatures or substances. Besides Toto, several other Japanese companies are said to play important roles in the upstream semiconductor industry supply chain, such as Shin-Etsu Chemical and Tokyo Electron.