Cooling has been a supporting role in data centers for decades-air cooling plus fans, air conditioning if not enough. But when the power consumption curve of AI chips almost stands up, the old method completely fails.In 2026, liquid cooling is no longer a multiple choice question, but a red line for survival.
The laws of physics are merciless: power consumption has exceeded the limit of air cooling
Let's look at some hard numbers:
| chip/platform | power dissipation | cooling solution |
|---|---|---|
| Nvidia H100/H200 | 700W | Air cooling is feasible |
| NVIDIA GB200 | 1200W | Liquid cooling + air cooling hybrid (cold plate cover chip, storage/IO retention air cooling) |
| NvidiaGB300(Blackwell Ultra) | 1400W (top with 1600W) | Fully liquid cooled (all devices cooled) |
| Nvidia Rubin (VR200/VR300) | 1800W / 2700W | 100% full liquid cooling,fanless design |
| Google TPU v7 (Ironwood) | 980W | Forced 100% liquid cooling |
| physical limit of air cooling(Vertiv data) | Chip TDP 1000W, stand-alone rack 80kW | More than that, no cooling. |
The rack level jump is more intuitive:
- Power of traditional IDC stand-alone rack:2-10kW(Air cooling is more than enough)
- H100 Air-cooled rack:42kW(Approaching upper limit of air cooling)
- GB200 NVL72 Rack:120kW(Must be liquid cooled)
- GB 300 NVL 72 Full speed operation:120-150kW
- NVIDIA Vera Rubin Platform (2H 2026 Delivery):Single rack approx. 300kW
- Rubin Ultra (2027): Single rack exceeds 1 MW (1000kW)
A very real consequence:If liquid cooling is not used, the GB300's computing power performance will shrink by at least 40% due to overheating protection.That is to say, the card you bought at a high price can only run out of 60% performance in an air-cooled environment — this is not a question of "do you want liquid cooling", it is "buy a new card must be liquid cooling".
Permeability data: 2026 is the first year of scale landing
| caliber | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | 2027+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Global AI Data Center Liquid Cooling Penetration Rate (TrendForce) | 14% | 33% | 40% | —— |
| China market penetration | —— | 20% | 37% | More than half of 2027, 82% in 2030 |
| New AIDC liquid cooling ratio (IDC/Gartner combined) | Less than 15% | —— | more than 45% of | —— |
| Liquid cooling penetration rate of newly built AIDC in China (forecast by brokers) | —— | —— | Breakthrough 80% | —— |
The caliber of different institutions varies greatly (whether the statistical scope is "all data centers" or "new intelligent computing centers"), but the direction is completely the same:From minority to majority in two or three years.
Several measures of market size:
- Global Liquid-cooled Server Market Leapfrog by 2026$8.5 billion(About 61.5 billion RMB).
- JPMorgan Chase: Global AI server liquid cooling system market jumps from $8.9 billion in 2025 to 2026 More than $17 billion.
- China Galaxy Securities: The total scale of liquid cooling server market in China in 2026 exceeds30 billion RMB.
- Orient Securities: Global Liquid Cooling Market Space in 202668.8 billion RMB.
- Guoxin Securities: By 2030, the scale of global server liquid cooling market will reach$53.5 billion.
- Capital market reaction: Wande liquid-cooled server index soared 11.41% in a single week, the biggest increase in nearly 76 weeks.
Two technical routes: cold plate is the mainstream, immersion attack limit
| dimensionality | Cold Plate Liquid Cooling | Liquid immersion |
|---|---|---|
| theory | Cold plate directly attached to CPU/GPU, liquid circulation in the board microchannel to take away heat; storage, IO and other components to retain air cooling | Immerse the whole machine in non-conductive coolant, and the whole component will contact the liquid for cooling. |
| market shares | Mainstream, accounting for more than 90% in 2026(The proportion of cold plate in new data center exceeds 80%) | 25-30%(another caliber), focusing on ultra-high density |
| advantage | Highest maturity, friendly to retrofitting existing air-cooled rooms, good supply chain compatibility | Best cooling efficiency, PUE lower than 1.1, no fan noise, no local hot spots |
| applicable scenarios | 1000-1400W class single chip (GB300), 100kW class rack | High-density scenarios with power density of more than 30kW per unit rack, future 200kW-1MW level |
| cost structure | Cold plate 32%+ Quick connector 28%+ CDU 25%=85% of core componentsAbout 10% for pipeline valves; only 5% for coolant | High coolant ratio (electronic fluorinated fluid or synthetic oil), high tank and sealing requirements |
| technical threshold | Cold plate micro-channel micron processing (five-axis CNC+ vacuum brazing), fast joint tens of thousands of plug and unplug, CDU high reliability 7×24 operation | Coolant chemical stability and insulation, sealing system (sealing failure accounts for 60% of total liquid cooling failure) |
An easily overlooked reliability statistic:Sealing failures account for 60% of total failures in liquid cooling systems, is the most important reliability risk. The high purity of the coolant and the complex temperature change environment have extremely high requirements for the chemical compatibility and life of the sealing material. The material system has developed from ordinary rubber to fluororubber and even perfluororubber (which can work stably over a wide temperature range from-45℃ to 300℃). This is why liquid cooling is not as simple as "pouring water into the server".
PUE policy tightening: the second driver of liquid cooling
PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness)= Total data center energy consumption divided IT equipment energy consumption, the closer to 1 the better.Cooling systems consume 20%-30% of the total data center energyThis is a key factor affecting PUE.
| policy calls for... | index |
|---|---|
| Special Action Plan for Green and Low Carbon Development of Data Center | By the end of 2025, the national average PUE will drop below 1.5; the PUE of new large-scale projects will be strictly controlled1.25 within; Hub node items are not higher than1.2The proportion of green electricity in the newly built data center of the national hub node exceeds 80% |
| domestic situation | The average PUE of eight hub node clusters is about 1.3, and the lowest PUE of the most advanced data center is reduced to 1.3.1.04 |
| us/EU | New data center PUE ≤1.2 |
| codes of practice | Global Computing Consortium (GCC)"AIDC Infrastructure Scale": Power density of new AIDC single rack ≥50kW,synchronous forced equipped liquid cooling system |
| March 2026 Four Ministries Document | Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, National Development and Reform Commission, State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission and National Energy Administration jointly issued, clearly promoting liquid cooling servers and strengthening R & D and application of phase change liquid cooling technology |
In other words:Air cooling exit is not only a technical issue, but also a compliance issue.The new AIDC wants to get the index, think about energy efficiency review, liquid cooling is standard.
Industrial Chain and Supply Pattern (Procurement Perspective)
- whole machine manufacturerInspur Information (cold plate shipments tripled year-on-year in 2026, the world's first echelon), Supermicro (rack-level plug-and-play delivery, leading private cloud in North America), Dell, Ultramicro.
- infrastructureVertiv technology (CDU and long-term coolant, transforming from hardware supplier to full-stack liquid cooling solution provider), Invik (revenue of 6.068 billion RMB in 2025 +32% year-on-year, entering NVIDIA MGX system, customizing CDU for Google, leakage detection accuracy of 0.1 ml/min is better than the industry average of 1 ml/min), Shenling Environment, Gaolan shares.
- Certification becomes threshold: In 2026,"the whole system has passed NVIDIA certification" has become a key standard to measure the competitiveness of complete machine manufacturers. NVIDIA has opened up the supplier list in the GB300 stage, and ODM manufacturers can independently select partners, opening up space for domestic supply chains.
- Domestic replacement of coolantAfter 3M withdrew from fluorinated liquid business, domestic substitution was promoted along two routes-conquering fluorinated liquid synthesis and purification process, or developing silicone oil/mineral oil/special formula synthetic liquid. Barriers to stable supply of basic chemical raw materials, reliability verification cycle of several years, UL/ASHRAE and other international certifications.
- The price war has begun.: Invico 2026 Q1 revenue of 1.175 billion RMB year-on-year +26%, but the net profit of the parent only 8.6576 million RMB fell sharply by nearly 82% year-on-year--low price grab began to erode the profit table. Guoxin Securities judged that the industry is still in the early stage, there are many participants, and monopoly has not yet been formed. Price war is a prelude to reshuffle.Good for buyers: Liquid-cooled offers in 2026 are more negotiable than in 2025.
Three evolving directions for technology
- The coolant turns green.Environmental regulations impose strict limits on PFAS (Permanent Chemicals) and the global market will accelerate its transition to synthetic oil or bio-based coolants in 2026. Pay attention to environmental compliance of coolants when purchasing and may face replacement requirements in the future.
- and waste heat recovery.The 40 - 60 ℃ hot water brought by liquid cooling system is connected to urban heating system in Europe and northern China, and the data center is transformed from "large energy consumer" to "energy station". This is limited in Guangzhou (no heating demand), but it is a return item that can be counted as investment return for northern projects.
- Standardization of interfaces.The standardization of liquid cooling interface jointly promoted by OCP (Open Computing Project) and China ODCC has made significant progress in 2026, and CDU and cold plate of different brands begin to realize preliminary exchange. This means that in the future, it is not necessary to be bound by a single manufacturer, and the purchasing bargaining power is enhanced.
Practical impact on SMEs and self-built server rooms
Most SMBs won't buy the GB300 themselves, but the liquid-cooling trend will affect you in three ways:
1. IDC Hosting Price and Availability
The hosting unit price of liquid-cooled racks is higher than that of air-cooled racks (infrastructure investment is larger), but if you want to run high-power AI cards, air-cooled racks simply cannot fit — now many IDC start charging power surcharges for requests for single racks exceeding 8- 10kW, and directly request liquid-cooled racks for more than 20kW or refuse.Clarify your single-rack power requirements before hostingThis is the first sentence of selection.
2. Ceiling of self-built small server room
A typical enterprise self-built equipment room (2-4 racks, precision air conditioning, UPS) can support a single rack power is usually 5-8kW. This means:
| equipment | Power consumption per unit | Feasibility of self-built server room |
|---|---|---|
| 1U/2U Universal Server | 300-600W | Totally feasible, a 42 U rack installed 15 - 20 sets about 6 - 10 kW |
| 4-card GPU inference server (RTX 4090 class) | 2.5-3.5kW | It is feasible, but only 2-3 units can be placed in one rack. It is necessary to confirm the refrigeration margin. |
| 8 card GPU training server (A100/H20 class) | 5-8kW | Critical, requires a single rack refrigeration capacity of 10kW+, most old server rooms do not support |
| GB 200/GB 300 NVL 72 Rack | 120-150kW | completely unworkable, must be liquid cooling room or managed |
Practical advice:Reasoning servers with less than 4 cards can be built by themselves (provided that the cooling and power supply of the server room have been evaluated), and those with more than 8 cards are better hosted with a licensed IDC provider.The hidden costs of self-construction (power expansion, precision air conditioning, UPS, fire protection, 7×24 duty, spare parts) usually exceed the cost of colocation in three years.
3. Ask for cooling requirements when purchasing equipment
After 2026 to buy GPU servers, specifications on the "cooling requirements" must be checked one by one: single rack power density, air inlet temperature requirements, whether the need for liquid cooling interface, rack load (liquid cooling rack load than air cooling increased by 30-50%).
Our judgment: who should be cooled now?
- the upper: Projects with GB200/GB300 level computing power, single rack power exceeding 20kW, new smart computing centers or large-scale renovations, and hard PUE compliance indicators should be deployed.
- look on: Single rack 10- 20kW medium-sized server room (cold plate transformation feasible but long return on investment, first do airflow organization and cold and hot channel closed optimization, usually save 20-30% refrigeration energy consumption, much lower cost).
- need not: Ordinary enterprise server room (within 5-8kW of single rack), air cooling + cold and hot channel closure is completely sufficient, and the money spent on UPS, precision air conditioning redundancy and monitoring alarm has higher returns.
ACCPC provides server room construction and services: Data-center planning design (including power density and refrigeration calculation), Structured Cabling, UPS and power distribution, precision air conditioner selection, airflow organization optimization (closed hot and cold channels), rack and equipment shelving, environmental CCTV system, IDC server room hosting coordination (we engage a licensed IDC provider: two-way mains + UPS + diesel + 7×24 duty; air-cooled and liquid-cooled rack options can be assessed). It also conducts server wholesale in Guangzhou and installation and commissioning of server room equipment.&If your server room is worried about cooling, we can do a free power and cooling calculation first.--Give a report on "how many units can be installed now and how many more can be installed with additional equipment", which is cheaper than blindly buying equipment. Telephone020-39029800.