Fujikura cuts 309 more jobs in Romania while AI fiber makes it a $52 billion stock

309 notices land at Dej, the second round in a year

Fujikura Automotive Romania has notified staff and the authorities that 309 jobs will go at its plant in Dej, Cluj county, with the first departures at the end of October ¹²³. It is the second collective layoff there in twelve months, after roughly 230 people left in the 2025 round ². The factory makes car wiring harnesses, Volkswagen group among the customers, and the documents handed to employees say the plant's main project has reached the end of its life cycle↗ ¹².

The group is priced for the supercycle

The company behind those jobs is valued at $52.5 billion, 41 times trailing earnings ⁴. On 7 August it raised full-year operating profit guidance for the second time this year, to 432 billion yen from 310 billion yen, a rise it credits to AI data center demand; the April to June quarter alone delivered a record 104.8 billion yen of operating profit↗, up 155% ⁵⁶. The shares trade at 5,021 yen in Tokyo↗ ⁷.

One group, two ledgers

Almost all of the money is fiber. The telecommunication systems division earned 98 billion yen of operating profit in that single quarter, up 188%, on hyperscaler appetite for optical cable ⁶. The Dej company's entire 2025 came to 90.7 million lei of sales↗ and closed 2.08 million lei in the red, on expectations of a further fall through the fiscal year to March 2027 ¹². The fiber side is being expanded; the harness side is being emptied.

From 5,033 people toward a rump

The human ledger is the headcount: 5,033 in 2016 by the count carried in the local reporting, an average of 758 in 2024, 477 in the 2025 accounts ¹². The 309 notices, 61 of them for office and auxiliary roles, would leave about 170 people once October ends ¹². Sales fell from roughly 100 million lei in 2024 to 90.7 million in 2025, and a 2.65 million lei profit became a loss ².

The other side has numbers too

The stated case is capacity aligned to order volume, not distress ¹, and the group is spending where demand is: as much as 300 billion yen to roughly triple fiber capacity in Japan and the United States↗ ⁶. Skeptics exist; a Smartkarma note titled "Elephants Can't Fly" questioned the valuation after the raise ⁵. In Cluj, the employment agency will hold pre-layoff sessions on 6 and 7 October with six employers looking to hire↗ ⁸, and local officials expect many of the dismissed to be absorbed by firms nearby ³.

What October decides

The departures start at the end of October ¹. Watch whether Dej stabilises near 170 people or keeps sliding toward zero as the Volkswagen work fully runs out, and whether the fiber ledger keeps paying: the half-year to 30 September is forecast at 198 billion yen of operating profit↗ ⁵. The fiber side of the ledger compounds; the harness side gets a job fair on 6 October.