AI server solutions provider AMAX has seen demand for liquid cooling among server customers continue to increase, especially for cold plate cooling solutions, while that for immersion cooling solutions is also picking up gradually. At the moment, European customers are showing a higher willingness to adopt immersion cooling solutions compared to US ones due to stricter local environmental regulations and rising energy costs, according to AMAX executives.
AMAX chairwoman Jean Shih is optimistic about the upward trend of cooling demand as computing power increases. Momentum in liquid cooling has also continued to grow due to AI server demand.
AMAX has three major business segments: high-density servers and storage solutions, HPC solutions, and liquid-cooled full-rack solutions. In 2021, liquid-cooled full-rack solutions only accounted for 4% of the company's revenue, but the figure increased to 8% in 2022 and will surge to 30% in 2023. The company expects the revenue share to climb further in years to come.
AMAX CTO Rene Meyer pointed out that customers primarily adopt liquid cooling in two methods. The first is to use cold plates to dissipate heat directly from chips via liquid-filled pipes. The other is to use immersion cooling. There are two reasons prompting customers to choose liquid cooling for their servers: regulatory compliance, where customers need to meet specific power usage effectiveness (PUE) requirements and due to AI.
In fact, inquiries for liquid cooling have surged significantly in 2023, largely due to the generative AI trend. The widely popular Nvidia H100 has a heat dissipation requirement of 700 watts. Even AMD's MI 300 has a requirement of 300 watts. The cooling industry estimates that for a rack with 8 GPUs and a network switch, the cooling requirement can be as high as 6,000 watts.
AMAX's VP of Business Development Bohr-Young Tsao stated that regulations on data center PUE in various countries are pushing more customers toward liquid cooling, especially in Europe. The high local energy costs and EU environmental regulations mean that EU customer demand for immersion liquid cooling is much higher than US customers.
Immersion liquid cooling can be categorized into single-phase and two-phase solutions, each with its pros and cons. While single-phase cooling is less efficient than two-phase one, the latter comes with a leakage risk due to the vaporization of the special cooling liquid, which could pose a hazard to the maintenance staff's health and the environment. According to Tsao, most European customers tend to choose the single-phase immersion liquid cooling approach.
Shih pointed out that compared to air cooling, liquid cooling is smaller in size, has better heat dissipation efficiency, and uses less power. The average selling price for liquid cooling solutions can be up to 50% or several times higher than that of air cooling. Thus, liquid cooling will be a key focus for AMAX's business development. Through cooling solutions, it hopes to continue to increase profit margins and customer stickiness.
