AI computing power fuels new tracks, and the liquid cooling industry ushers in explosive growth.

Since the beginning of this year, demand for AI computing power has seen explosive growth, opening up room for growth in the related industrial chain. The higher the computing power requirements, the higher the demands for heat dissipation of massive chips in data centers, making the liquid cooling industry a high-demand track where enterprises are rushing to make layouts.

Industry experts stated that the two mainstream technical routes in the liquid cooling industry, namely immersion cooling and cold plate cooling, are applicable to diverse scenarios such as AI servers, intelligent computing centers and energy storage.

Surging Market Demand Drives Liquid Cooling Enterprises to Fulfill Orders and Expand Production

The rapid growth of AI computing power has raised higher standards for data center heat dissipation, and liquid cooling systems are becoming core infrastructure for a new generation of data centers. Reporters visited upstream and downstream enterprises in the liquid cooling industrial chain and found that many manufacturers are operating at full capacity and continuously expanding production amid skyrocketing demand.

A person in charge of a cooling fluid manufacturer introduced that immersion cooling fluid technology was long monopolized by foreign enterprises. At present, the independently developed high-performance cooling fluid dedicated to large data centers has achieved mass production. Its price is only one quarter of imported products, winning wide favor from downstream customers.

Industry insiders explained that with the sharp increase in power consumption of AI computing chips, traditional air cooling technology can no longer meet the needs of high-density computing power deployment. Amid the global computing power competition, enterprises are seeking customized heat dissipation solutions, which is the core factor driving the sharp growth of liquid cooling demand.

Liquid Cooling Enterprises Own Competitive Advantages While Technologies Require Rapid Iteration

Industry experts pointed out that due to the low heat capacity and poor thermal conductivity of air, traditional air cooling can hardly meet industry standards, making liquid cooling almost a mandatory choice.

Many industry practitioners mentioned that although the production capacity of the liquid cooling industry is expanding rapidly, there is a shortage of high-end products that cannot fully match market demand. Meanwhile, existing mainstream technologies need to be upgraded and iterated at a faster pace.

Currently, China’s liquid cooling industrial chain is independently controllable with outstanding cost advantages and faster delivery efficiency. In addition, China boasts a huge global internet market and abundant AI application scenarios, enabling domestic liquid cooling R&D to accumulate rich experience in ultra-large-scale cluster deployment.

Zeng Tao, Chief Analyst of Power Equipment and New Energy at China Galaxy Securities, said: "We estimate that the liquid cooling market scale of AI intelligent computing centers will reach 20 billion yuan in 2026. The market size of liquid cooling for servers and cloud computing will range from 8 billion to 10 billion yuan, and that for traditional industries will stand at about 2 billion yuan. The total market scale of liquid cooling servers in China will exceed 30 billion yuan in 2026."