A user posted on social platform X, comparing the bankruptcy of Kodak with Fujifilm's successful transformation in the digital era, drawing attention and comments from American tech billionaire Elon Musk.
The post stated: "Kodak filed for bankruptcy in 2012. Its closest competitor, Fujifilm, faced the same issue: the advent of digital cameras ended the era of film. Fujifilm's response was to repurpose its chemical technology. The particle science that was once used to create light-sensitive emulsions on film is now applied to produce CMP slurries—polishing agents that smooth each layer of a chip to an atomic level. Nearly half of the world’s copper CMP slurry comes from Fujifilm. They invested $700 million to acquire a high-purity process chemicals company from Entegris and built a new factory in Kumamoto, close to Taiwan Semiconductor’s first wafer plant in Japan. Fujifilm aims for $3.3 billion in electronic materials revenue by 2030. While Kodak saw a declining business, Fujifilm recognized the underlying chemical potential."
Musk commented on the post, saying: "They did well."
In 2023, Musk posted that traditional automakers were about to face their 'Kodak moment' if they failed to accelerate their transition to electric vehicles. Similar to how Kodak, once a giant in the film industry, was eliminated because it couldn’t keep up with the trends of the digital age.
