Taiwan's old-school metal-parts factories are turning into high-tech suppliers, and it is paying off for them and for the AI supply chain.

• Car-part and machine-tool makers are pushing into four areas: AI data centers, chip equipment, robots and aerospace.
• The hottest demand is server cooling — water-cooling plates, manifolds and quick connectors that stop liquid cooling systems from leaking.
• Chih Shen Ke (智伸科) won a server connector order in record time, going from decision to mass production in about a year.
• Its car business is shrinking as a share of sales, while server and chip-equipment work has more than doubled to over a tenth of revenue.
• Sales in the first half rose 19%, and the goal is for non-car work to pass half of revenue by 2027 or 2028.

Outlook: Expect more of these unglamorous Taiwanese factories to show up inside AI servers and robots, with cooling parts leading the way.