AI makes a fortune for a furniture hardware maker — its founder is now Taiwan’s richest person

The global AI boom has created another unexpected winner in Taiwan — and it does not make chips or servers. King Slide Works, a manufacturer of furniture hardware, has become a major supplier of the specialized rails used to mount heavy servers inside AI data centers.

King Slide originally specialized in cabinet hinges and drawer slides, but later expanded into server rails, which have become the company’s most lucrative business. King Slide now controls around 80 % of the high-end server-rail market, while its shares have surged almost 280 % since the beginning of the year. The rally has made founder Lin Tsung-chi Taiwan’s richest person, with Forbes estimating his fortune at around $20.2 billion.

King Slide’s financial results show just how profitable the AI-driven business has become. Its gross margin reached 87 % last quarter, up from around 50 % a few years ago. That is higher than Nvidia’s 75 % and TSMC’s 68 %.

Server rails may sound like an unremarkable piece of hardware, but AI servers are extremely heavy and expensive, making reliability more important than the relatively small cost of the rails. King Slide says its current position is the result of two decades of engineering work, while analysts expect increasingly dense servers, custom chips and liquid cooling to create demand for even more specialized rack hardware.

King Slide is also expanding production in the US to serve North American AI infrastructure customers. However, its dominance could face some pressure as Nvidia diversifies its suppliers. Daiwa Securities expects King Slide’s share of Nvidia-related rail-kit orders to fall from around 80 % to about 75 % next year.

For now, though, King Slide illustrates how the AI infrastructure boom is benefiting companies far beyond the semiconductor industry.