On May 22, 2026, Chinese media outlet Guancha.cn introduced a self-media article from Huashang Taolue, titled 'Despite making the same Ajinomoto, China nearly died out while Japan dominated the world,' stating that while Japan's Ajinomoto developed insulating materials essential for AI chips from amino acid technology and built a dominant share, Chinese companies fell behind in technological innovation.

The article stated that while the world focuses on NVIDIA and TSMC, an 'unexpected ruler' born from the kitchen is determining the fate of cutting-edge technology, and that Japan's seasoning manufacturer Ajinomoto holds a crucial position in the world's artificial intelligence (AI) computing power through ABF film made from a byproduct of umami seasoning.

It then explained that when Intel engineers, who were facing challenges in semiconductor chip packaging, visited Ajinomoto in 1996, the amino acid technology-based insulating resin that the company had researched for over 20 years led to the development of ABF film. The article introduced that this thin film solved the insulation problems of advanced chips, and Ajinomoto successfully expanded from seasonings into the semiconductor field.

Furthermore, it pointed out that while Ajinomoto, since its founding in 1908, established technological dominance with a 'narrow and deep' model, accumulating hundreds of patents in specific fields, the Chinese manufacturer Lianhua Weijing (Lotus MSG), once the world's largest, declined due to unplanned diversification, failing to build technological barriers. It evaluated that Lianhua Weijing's pursuit of only scale expansion and neglect of basic science was what led to their divergent fates.

Moreover, it introduced that major chips from NVIDIA and Intel currently depend on Ajinomoto's ABF film, and that Ajinomoto dominates 95% of the global market share, establishing industry standards. On the other hand, Lianhua Weijing went bankrupt in 2020 and is in the reconstruction phase, and it conveyed that it will not be easy for them to catch up after a 30-year delay.

The article asserted that Ajinomoto's success is due to its respect for basic science and its in-depth exploration, and that Chinese manufacturing needs the spirit to continue steady research. It concluded that a business philosophy of not being swayed by short-term scale or trends, but rather digging deep into one hole, is essential for the next 30 years of leaps forward. (Edited and translated by Kawashiri)