Liquid cooling solutions gain popularity due to the increasing AI workload in data centers.
Lenovo, Dell, Supermicro, and Giga Computing have recently launched their new products.
Artificial intelligence is generating unprecedented demand in data centers, driven by the need to process enormous amounts of information. As large tech companies rush to expand their infrastructures to handle AI workloads, they face the growing challenge of how to power these operations sustainably and affordably. This context has led even companies like Oracle and Microsoft to consider nuclear energy as a viable solution.
Another crucial aspect is managing the heat produced by high-performance AI hardware. Liquid cooling solutions have emerged as a promising option to maintain optimal system performance while meeting the escalating energy demands. Throughout October 2024, various tech companies announced liquid cooling solutions, indicating a clear shift in the direction of the industry.
During the recent Lenovo Tech World event, the company showcased its next-generation Neptune liquid cooling solution for servers. The sixth generation of Neptune, which utilizes hot water cooling in an open loop, is being implemented in the company's partner ecosystem, enabling organizations to build and operate accelerated computing for generative AI while reducing energy consumption in data centers by up to 40%, they claim.
At the 2024 OCP Global Summit, Giga Computing, a subsidiary of Gigabyte, presented a direct liquid cooling (DLC) server designed for Nvidia HGX H200 systems. Alongside this server, Giga displayed the G593-SD1 model, which features a dedicated air cooling chamber for the Nvidia H200 Tensor Core GPU, aimed at data centers that are not yet ready to fully embrace liquid cooling.
Dell's new Integrated Rack 7000 (IR7000) is a scalable system specifically designed with liquid cooling in mind. This system can manage future deployments of up to 480KW, capturing almost 100% of the generated heat. According to Arthur Lewis, president of Dell's Infrastructure Solutions Group, "Today’s data centers cannot meet the demands of AI, which requires innovations in high-density computing and liquid cooling with modular, flexible, and efficient designs." He added that these new systems provide the necessary performance for organizations to remain competitive in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.
Supermicro has also introduced liquid-cooled SuperClusters designed for AI workloads, powered by the Nvidia Blackwell platform. Supermicro's liquid cooling solutions, supported by the Nvidia GB200 NVL72 platform for exascale computing, have begun to be offered to selected customers, with large-scale production expected by the end of the fourth quarter. Charles Liang, president and CEO of Supermicro, stated, "We are driving the future of sustainable AI computing, and our liquid-cooled AI solutions are being rapidly adopted by some of the world's most ambitious AI infrastructure projects, having shipped over 2,000 liquid-cooled racks since June 2024."
With all these innovations, it seems clear that liquid cooling will become a central element of data center operations as workloads continue to grow. This technology will be essential for managing the heat and energy demands of the next generation of AI computing, and it is evident that we are just beginning to see the potential impact it will have on efficiency, scalability, and sustainability in the years to come.
