NVIDIA GB300 Leads the New Trend of Liquid Cooling for AI Servers: What Opportunities Lie in the Liquid Cooling Industry Chain?

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, the demand for computing power in data centers is growing exponentially. The enormous heat generated by high-computing-power chips has made traditional air-cooling solutions insufficient. Recently, Guojin Securities released a research report, focusing on NVIDIA's upcoming GB300 AI server. This server adopts a full liquid cooling design, indicating the accelerated penetration of liquid cooling technology in the data center field.

Liquid Cooling Technology: A New Heat Dissipation Option for AI Servers

NVIDIA GB300 adopts a liquid cooling design, with its ultra-high thermal design power (TDP) being a key driving factor. Traditional air-cooling solutions can hardly meet the heat dissipation needs of high-TDP chips. According to the research report of Guojin Securities, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of China's liquid-cooled server market is expected to reach 46.8% from 2024 to 2029, and the market size is expected to reach 16.2 billion US dollars by 2029. Undoubtedly, this brings huge development opportunities to the liquid cooling industry chain. Currently, liquid cooling solutions mainly include cold plate, immersion, and spray types. Among them, cold plate technology is relatively mature and widely used, but its cooling effect has a lower upper limit; immersion and spray liquid cooling have excellent cooling effects, but their costs are relatively higher, and they also have higher requirements for materials.

Cold Plate, Immersion, and Spray Types: Technical Features and Industry Chain Links

Cold plate liquid cooling is currently the mainstream solution for large-scale and existing data center transformation. Its core lies in capturing the heat of chips through the cold plate, then transferring the heat to the cooling distribution unit (CDU) for heat exchange with the primary side, and finally dissipating the heat to the outside through facilities such as cooling towers. Cold plate liquid cooling mainly consists of cooling distribution units (CDUs), cold plates, circulation pipelines, quick disconnects (UQDs), and manifolds. The CDU is the 'heart' of the cold plate liquid cooling system, and its performance depends on the performance of the circulation pump and heat exchanger. The cold plate is in direct contact with the chip, and the flatness and micro-roughness of its bottom surface, as well as the design of the internal hollow channel structure, directly affect the heat dissipation efficiency. The core indicators for evaluating the performance of the cold plate are pressure drop and thermal resistance.

Immersion liquid cooling involves completely immersing heat-generating electronic components in insulating cooling liquid, achieving rapid heat dissipation through the high heat capacity and thermal conductivity of the liquid. Its secondary side structure is relatively simple, relying only on a sealed immersion tank, circulation pump, and heat exchange unit. Immersion liquid cooling has high requirements for the selection of cooling liquid materials. Single-phase immersion liquid cooling requires the selection of oil-based cooling liquids with high boiling points, while two-phase immersion liquid cooling usually uses fluorinated liquids with low boiling points. However, affected by the trend of environmental protection, data centers may face restrictions on the use of fluorinated liquids.

Spray liquid cooling involves directly spraying cooling liquid onto the surfaces of high-heat-generating components of the server, such as CPUs and GPUs, to achieve efficient heat dissipation. Spray liquid cooling does not require phase change, and the cooling liquid circulates in liquid form at all times, so it is necessary to select a cooling medium with high boiling point, insulation, thermal conductivity, and oxidation resistance. Spray liquid cooling can be accurately designed according to the location and heat generation of the server's heat sources to achieve on-demand supply.

Upstream Materials and Future Development Trends

The development of liquid cooling technology has also driven the demand for upstream materials. Since the cooling liquid needs to be in direct contact with electronic devices, it has high requirements for properties such as insulation and corrosion resistance, making electronic fluorinated liquids the first choice. In addition, high-efficiency thermal interface materials (TIMs), especially liquid metals, play an important role in improving heat dissipation performance. Liquid metal TIMs are perfectly compatible with the thermal conductivity needs of GPUs and CPUs and are ideal thermal conductive materials for high-end chips.

Relevant Targets in the Liquid Cooling Industry Chain

Guojin Securities recommends paying attention to relevant targets in the liquid cooling industry chain, including:

Providers of full-chain liquid cooling solutions (such as Envicool, Shenling Environment, Tongfei Co., Ltd., and Gaolan Co., Ltd.).

Suppliers of components in segmented links with high value and low localization rate (such as Kechuang Xinyuan, Chuanhuan Technology, Feilong Co., Ltd., and Feirongda).

Upstream material suppliers (such as Juhua Co., Ltd., New 宙邦 (Ningbo Shanshan Co., Ltd. - note: '新宙邦' is commonly translated as 'CAP-XX' in some contexts, but the standard translation for the Chinese company '新宙邦' is 'Shenzhen CAP-XX New Energy Technology Co., Ltd.', but here it is more appropriate to use the pinyin with the company type for clarity: XINZHOUBANG Co., Ltd.), Dongyangguang, Yonghe Co., Ltd., and Debang Technology).

With the continuous growth of AI computing power, liquid cooling technology is expected to experience explosive growth. In your opinion, against the backdrop of the rapid development of liquid cooling technology, which segmented areas of companies will benefit first?

Kres(Suzhou) Power Systems Technology Co., Ltd is an emerging company focused on fluid power solutions, and serve for the markets of Energy, Construction, Agriculture, Manufacturing, Transportation, Medical, Data Centers, etc., and was founded in 2022 with leading-edge engineering capabilities and innovative products to keep up with the changing customer needs. Including OCP standard UQD, UQDB, BMQC, manifold, EPDM hose and hose assemblies, FF9 full flow dual interlock quick disconnect coupling (a better replacement for FD83 series products), API heat transfer products, Gates EPDM hose and Wika products.

KRES FF9 connectors are specifically engineered for fluid transmission, electronic cooling, and data center liquid cooling applications, where full flow, fluid compatibility, and safety are of paramount importance. The FF9 series ball valve quick-disconnect couplings adopt a full-flow design and are now available in 2-inch, 1.5-inch, and the popular 1-inch sizes. The FF9 double interlock liquid cooling quick-change connector features a swivel structure at its tail, facilitating easy connection and disconnection. Additionally, its two connector halves are completely identical, simplifying maintenance, installation, and service processes.

· 100% full-flow interlock ball valve: The FF9 double interlock ball valve has a diameter of up to 21mm, ensuring large flow while reducing pressure drop, achieving large flow and low pressure drop, and has obtained SGS ROHS reports and Huace performance test reports.

· KRES interlock ball valve adopts a double interlock design with two locking mechanisms to prevent accidental disconnection and ensure data security.

· The FF9 liquid cooling quick-change ball valve has identical connector halves, making maintenance, installation, and service simple.

· As a liquid cooling quick-change ball valve for data centers, it has reliable and stable performance with minimal leakage, meeting the maintenance needs of safe machine relocation or shutdown.

· Standard body material of the liquid cooling quick-change connector: 304 stainless steel, with wide fluid compatibility, and other materials can be provided upon request.

· Standard sealing material of the liquid cooling quick-change connector: EPDM ethylene propylene diene monomer synthetic rubber, and other materials can be provided upon request.

· Operating temperature range of the liquid cooling-specific ball valve: -40℃ ~ 120℃