Fujikura’s 229 Billion Yen Bet: How a Cable Maker Became the Unlikely Winner of the AI Infrastructure Boom

Japanese cable maker Fujikura raises net profit forecast 46%, stock jumps 36% in a week amid surging fiber optic demand from data centers, defying broad tech sell-off.

Two weeks ago, Fujikura slashed its initial profit guidance so sharply that shares nearly halved. Then, on June 18, the Japanese cable maker flipped the script, raising its net profit forecast for the year ending March 2027 to 229 billion yen – a 46% jump from the previous year. The market took notice. Within seven days, the stock surged roughly 33% as investors piled in on the back of concrete orders from hyperscaler data centre operators.

The rally has since accelerated. This week, as Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 plunged 3.55% on Tuesday – dragged down by a 10% crash in South Korea’s KOSPI that triggered a trading halt – Fujikura defied the sell-off, closing up 5.29%. By Wednesday, shares had climbed further to EUR 34.80, bringing the weekly gain to a staggering 36%. The contrast with the broader tech rout could not be starker: SoftBank and Tokyo Electron suffered heavy losses, while investors fled anything tied to the chip cycle.

Behind the divergence lies a structural shift in demand. Hyperscalers such as Microsoft and Meta are pouring an estimated USD 700 billion into new data centres this year alone. Conventional copper cabling is hitting physical limits for high-speed data transfer, forcing operators to switch to optical fibre networks. Global fibre optic cable demand is growing at up to 25% annually, yet production currently covers only half of that need. Delivery times for critical components now exceed 60 weeks – a bottleneck that hands pricing power to established suppliers like Fujikura.

Macro headwinds are failing to dampen the enthusiasm. The Bank of Japan raised its benchmark rate to 1.00% – the highest in 31 years – while the yen remains weak at around 161 to the dollar. Normally, rising rates and a sliding currency would weigh on Japanese equities, but investors are looking past them. They are focused on the long-term horizon: global data centre capacity is expected to double to 200 GW by 2030, and Fujikura stands as a primary beneficiary of the associated fibre architecture build-out.

The technical picture reflects the stock’s newfound volatility. The 30-day annualised volatility has spiked to over 162%, while a broader annualised fluctuation measure runs near 149%. The Relative Strength Index has moved from 55.9 early this week to 56.9, indicating neutral territory despite the rapid ascent – a sign that the momentum still has room to run before hitting overbought levels.

Ultimately, Fujikura’s rally hinges on whether the hyperscaler order flow remains robust. The company’s revised forecast was backed by concrete purchase commitments, higher unit prices and a stabilised supply chain, insulating it from the weakness plaguing the semiconductor sector. The next quarterly report will provide the clearest signal of whether this cable maker can sustain its improbable run as the rest of the tech world wobbles.