Henkel AG & Co. KGaA

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Intelligence

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• Did you know2024

  Henkel's Bergquist Gap Pad thermal interface materials — boron nitride-filled silicone pads that transfer heat between power semiconductors and heatsinks — are used in both EV traction inverter power modules (silicon carbide MOSFET modules bolted to cooling plates in a Volkswagen ID.4 or Tesla Model 3) and in data center server PSU power conversion modules (IGBT/MOSFET modules in the PSU that converts AC grid power to 12VDC for server motherboards). The same Bergquist Gap Pad material, manufactured at the same US and European plants, is simultaneously in the power electronics of an electric vehicle driving down the highway and in the power electronics of the server rack training the AI model on an iPhone. Henkel (known to consumers as the maker of Persil and Schwarzkopf) is thus an unknown critical material supplier for both the automotive electrification supply chain and the AI computing infrastructure supply chain — through the thermal interface layer that keeps power semiconductors from failing in both applications.

  Henkel AG & Co. KGaA ↗

• Origin2024

  Henkel AG was founded in 1876 in Düsseldorf, Germany by Fritz Henkel with a single product: a universal detergent based on sodium silicate, sold door-to-door as "Henkel's Bleich-Soda" (bleaching soda). In 1907, Henkel launched Persil — the world's first self-acting laundry detergent that didn't require pre-soaking or hand-scrubbing, named for two active ingredients (PERborate and SILicate). Persil became one of the most recognized consumer brands in Europe. Over 150 years, Henkel expanded from household laundry chemistry to hair care (Schwarzkopf, acquired 1995) and to industrial adhesives through the Loctite acquisition (1997, for ~$1.3 billion). The 2014 acquisition of Bergquist Company ($170 million) added thermal interface materials for electronics. Today, the same Düsseldorf company whose 1907 laundry detergent freed German housewives from the washboard also supplies the thermal interface material that prevents NVIDIA H100 GPUs from overheating in AI data centers — 150 years of chemistry from washing powder to semiconductor packaging.

  Henkel AG & Co. KGaA ↗