Why Liquid-Cooled Infrastructure Has Become Mainstream?
Release time: 2025-11-26
A decade ago, liquid cooling was viewed as a “niche solution” for supercomputers and high-end AI clusters. Today, it has evolved into a mainstream infrastructure choice for data centers worldwide. This shift is not driven by technology hype, but by irreversible industry trends and pragmatic operational needs.
The primary driver is the surge in computing density. As AI, real-time analytics and cloud gaming gain traction, server power consumption has jumped from 500W per unit to 3kW or more for high-end GPUs. Traditional air cooling hits a wall here—its thermal conductivity is 40 times lower than that of cooling fluids, making it impossible to handle heat loads above 50kW per cabinet. Liquid cooling, by contrast, uses cold plates or immersion to transfer heat directly: cold plate systems support 100-150kW per cabinet, while two-phase immersion solutions can handle over 500kW, perfectly matching the needs of dense computing clusters.
Energy efficiency mandates further accelerate this transition. Global carbon neutrality goals and strict PUE regulations (many regions cap PUE at 1.2) leave air cooling struggling. Air-cooled data centers typically have a PUE of 1.3-1.5, while liquid cooling systems leverage high outlet temperatures (35-45℃) to maximize free cooling utilization—up to 80% of annual cooling needs can be met by natural cold sources in temperate regions, pushing PUE down to 1.03-1.08. A 10,000-server liquid-cooled data center saves over 10 million kWh annually compared to air-cooled equivalents.
Practicality improvements have removed adoption barriers. Early liquid cooling suffered from high retrofitting costs and maintenance complexity. Today, cold plate systems can be integrated into existing server racks with minimal modifications, costing just 15-20% more than upgraded air cooling. Immersion cooling has also advanced—low-toxicity, recyclable coolants reduce environmental risks, and modular designs enable on-site maintenance without full system shutdowns.
Liquid cooling’s rise to mainstream is thus a natural result of “demand pulling and technology pushing”. As computing needs continue to grow, it will no longer be an “upgrade option” but a foundational requirement—defining the next generation of data center infrastructure.
