Nvidia's GB200 Superchips are about to be shipped. Liteon Technology has sent its AI server liquid cooling solution specifically designed for Nvidia GB200's 19-inch OCP racks for testing and certifying. The company estimates that the liquid cooling system may start contributing revenues in 2024.
Anson Chiu, President of Liteon Technology, said that the company's liquid cooling solution is a scale-up system that integrates power management, liquid-heat dissipation solution, mechanical structure, software, and system management to provide a comprehensive AI server solution. The samples were already sent to Cloud Service Provider customers in North America and initial results are expected in August.
In response to the third-generation Open Rack Vault (ORV3) specification issued by the Organization for Open Compute Project (OCP), many Cloud vendors have already adopted the 21-inch rack design. To cope with the Nvidia GB200, which favors the 19-inch rack design, Liteon has launched the vault-in-vault product that conforms to Nvidia's design, which is to add the 19-inch vault into the 21-inch vault to expand the supply of products that conform to Nvidia's related solutions. This means that Liteon will be able to expand its supply to meet Nvidia's relevant program, and Liteon will become a priority supplier.
Chiu said that as AI applications continue to expand, power supply demand upgrades will be the top priority. Since the computing power and power supply wattage continue to increase, driving power supply demand from 3KW, 5KW, and 8KW in 2024. Customer demand for 16KW solutions is expected in 2027.
Liteon is on a transformation journey to move its operations from a component supplier to a system integrator. With the integration of power supply, liquid cooling, mechanical parts, and software to provide one-stop solutions to meet market demand, the AI server liquid cooling system will be its first system integration product.
Chiu said the liquid coolers are expected to ship in small quantities in the second half of the year and start bringing in revenue. In 2025, sales are expected to grow.
Chiu further said that the AI server business is expected to increase to account for 12-15% of total revenues in 2024, and he is optimistic about the trend that AI moves from the server to the PC and other marginal end-products. from the customer's forecast, the second half of the AI PC demand will be better than expected.
Although during the first 6 months of the year, the PC industry shipments were flat or slightly declining, AI PCs are expected to bring the demand for replacement and drive a slight growth of 1-3%, or up to 3-5% annual growth rate to the industry, estimates Chiu. For Liteon in 2024, with the AI PC keyboards beginning shipping in the first half of the year, it is estimated that the AI PC keyboard/power supply and other applications will contribute less than 5% of the growth, and the AI servers will continue to play a major growth driver. AI servers will still play a major growth driver.
Looking ahead to the second half of the year, Chiu said that the proportion of revenue in the first and second half of the year was about 48% to 52% in the past, and due to the slower operation in the first half of the year. It is estimated that the proportion of revenue in the first and second half of the year will be about 45% to 55% in 2024. Although the demand for consumer products or e-sports products is not good, the whole operation category and portfolio of the company will change significantly.
Credit: DIGITIMES
