Innovations in Liquid Cooling Technologies

Microsoft AI Agent Discovers Sustainable Coolant Fluid Microsoft is using a new AI agent to advance its bid to find more sustainable fluids for immersion cooling for its data centers. At Build 2025, Microsoft demonstrated how its new science-focused Discovery agent could accelerate research and product development, unleashing the agent - and the computing resources of the Azure Cloud - on a challenge that could enable broader use of two-phase immersion cooling. Many two-phase coolant fluids contain PFAS, also known as "forever chemicals." Microsoft has had an active interest in two-phase cooling, but has concluded that PFAS make them "unviable to use." So as Microsoft created AI agents for science, it put them to work on the problem, with promising results. "By leveraging advanced AI models and HPC tools for simulation that will be available on Microsoft Discovery, Microsoft researchers discovered a novel, non-PFAS, immersion datacenter coolant prototype in about 200 hours," writes Aseem Datar, VP for Product Innovation at Microsoft. "After the digital discovery process, we successfully synthesized this coolant prototype in under four months, and it’s currently under further analysis and refinement. "While this project is only an experiment, it lays the groundwork for future developments and improvements in coolant technology," said Datar. Watch the demo on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/eBWKb9UR Microsoft blog post: https://lnkd.in/eP8jKDXj

🚨 Cooling the AI Megawatt: 7 Innovators Redefining Data Center Thermal Design 💧 The AI era isn’t just driving compute demand—it’s rewriting the rulebook for thermal design. With chip TDPs > 1kW and rack densities topping 100kW, traditional air-cooled systems are hitting the wall. 🔥 The signal just got louder: Microsoft is rolling out LG’s full-stack liquid cooling suite—chillers, CDUs, cold plates, and CRAHs—across a wave of new AI data centers. 💰 According to Dell’Oro, the liquid-cooling hardware market will hit $15B in 5 years. Investors are paying attention—and so should you. 🧊 Here are 7 Companies Leading the Thermal Arms Race: 1️⃣ LiquidStack – Two-phase immersion pioneer backed by $35M from Tiger Global 2️⃣ Iceotope – Just launched Iceotope Labs, the first AI-focused liquid cooling test center 3️⃣ Submer – Closed-loop immersion with heat reuse potential for district heating 4️⃣ CoolIT Systems – KKR-owned, pushing 4kW cold plates & high-pressure loop design 5️⃣ ZutaCore – Waterless two-phase cooling, now integrated with Carrier’s HVAC lineup 6️⃣ Vertiv – “Switchable” colocation-ready systems; future-proofs for air + liquid hybrids 7️⃣ Schneider Electric – Partnered with $NVDA on turnkey EcoStruxure™ cooling blueprints 🏆 Honorable Mention: Nautilus Data Technologies — using river water for open-loop cooling & deploying CDU pods for third-party DCs. 🌊🛳️ 🧠 What Operators & Investors Need to Know: 💡 Hybrid is the New Normal – Designs that toggle between air & liquid de-risk capex as AI loads evolve 💰 Funding is Flowing – Strategic HVAC players and PE firms are betting liquid will be mandatory for >50kW racks 📐 Standards Are Lagging – Early adopters who solve for serviceability and safety can turn risk into revenue 🌱 Sustainability = Permits – Cooling solutions that reuse heat or eliminate water help meet ESG goals + unlock interconnection 🔭 What’s Next? If 2023 was the pilot phase, 2025 is the deployment phase. Expect more OEM x Cooling JV deals, more campus-scale rollouts, and municipal regulations focused on water use and heat recycling. 💬 Your Turn: Which tech will dominate AI cooling? 🌡️ Immersion? 🥶 Cold Plate? 🌬️ Rear-door heat exchangers? 🧪 Something we haven’t even seen yet? Drop your thoughts (and cooling war stories) 👇 #AI #DataCenters #LiquidCooling #ThermalDesign #Infrastructure #Hyperscale #Sustainability #CoolingInnovation #EnergyEfficiency #HeatReuse

We are not talking about it enough but data center cooling isn’t just a technical constraint anymore, it’s a wall we’re about to crash into. Air cooling is already maxed out under modern AI workloads. Liquid cooling isn’t futuristic anymore, it’s baseline. But even that won’t get us where we need to go. The next leap in computing isn’t just about silicon. It’s about materials, the ones that move heat faster, more efficiently, with less space and energy overhead. Right now, the situation is crucial: → Direct-to-chip liquid cooling is here and scaling. It’s a good step, but it doesn’t solve component-level hotspots. → Immersion cooling is being rolled out by Microsoft, Meta, and others. Great for racks, but not a silver bullet. → Liquid metals, high-end phase change materials, and engineered coolants are improving edge-level thermal interfaces, but they hit their limits fast. One material getting serious attention is synthetic diamond. Its thermal conductivity is unmatched. Some startups, like Akash Systems, are already using diamond for heat spreaders and RF devices, claiming measurable performance gains. There’s even early work on growing diamond films directly on silicon — a concept that, if scalable, could shift how we build thermal pathways in packaging. But diamond isn’t a magic solution. It’s expensive. Manufacturing is complex. Integration with standard processes is still a challenge. Still, the interest isn’t hype. The physics is real. And as compute density increases, it’s clear we’ll need new materials in the stack to handle the thermal load. If you're building AI-scale infrastructure and not exploring this layer of the problem — the materials layer — you’re not preparing for what’s coming. Because it won’t be the airflow that holds you back. It’ll be heat. #DataCenterCooling #AdvancedMaterials #LiquidCooling #FutureOfComputing