Goldman Sachs Research: Liquid Cooling Technology Becomes a Key Track for AI Data Centers Towards the Megawatt Era

The Zhitong Finance App learned that Goldman Sachs published a research report saying that at present, enterprises and industry participants are optimistic about the overall demand trend for data centers, and with the rapid development of technology, data centers are undergoing a transformation from traditional cloud architectures to dedicated artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. Increased computing power density and liquid cooling technology have become core trends in this transformation.

Industry trends: high-density computing power and liquid cooling technology are mainstream

Goldman Sachs said that during the 2025 Data Center World Conference, many industry leaders were generally optimistic about the demand prospects for data centers, and mentioned that many projects are already scheduled for the next few years.

The report specifically emphasizes that with the continuous increase in computing power density, the transformation process from traditional clouds to infrastructure built specifically for AI is accelerating. For example, data center rack power is expected to jump from the current 120 kW (Blackwell architecture) to 600 kW (Rubin architecture), and may even reach 1 MW in the future. This high power density makes liquid cooling technology the standard for future data centers, especially in newly built AI data centers.

Goldman Sachs Global Research Institute points out that liquid cooling technology can not only significantly improve performance, but also reduce costs. In particular, liquid-liquid cooling systems are preferred in large-scale data centers due to their efficient heat dissipation characteristics.

Company News and Technology Route

Goldman Sachs has analyzed in detail the layout of several companies in the field of liquid cooling technology:

nVent Electric (NVT.US): Launches a variety of liquid cooling solutions, including gas-liquid mixing and full liquid cooling systems. The future will focus on providing highly customized in-rack cooling designs for AI data centers.

Carrier Global (CARR.US): Plans to launch a 1 megawatt cooling distribution unit (CDU) by the end of this year. Data center related revenue is expected to double from $500 million last year to $1 billion this year.

Vertiv Holdings (VRT.US): Its 2.3 megawatt liquid cooling system is favored by hyperscale data center customers, and the company is closely aligning with NVDA.US's (NVDA.US) technology roadmap to support the customer's transition to liquid cooling technology.

Schneider Electric: Through partnerships with private equity firms, it provides on-site power generation solutions, including fuel cells and gas turbines, to meet the energy needs of data centers. Motivair's subsidiary is expanding into the Middle East and Asia markets as a liquid cooling leader. 96% of the supply chain is located in North America, which effectively resists disruptions in the global supply chain.

Challenges and disputes

However, the industry is divided over the sustainability of demand. Although companies are confident about long-term orders, Goldman Sachs pointed out that short-term growth may be affected by customer structures and macroeconomics. For example, orders from companies such as ABB will slow year-on-year in 2024; existing AI applications (such as ChatGPT) are still insufficient to absorb future production capacity, and new application scenarios need to be developed. Additionally, some customers disagree about choosing when to invest now — whether to adopt the latest technology (such as Blackwell architecture) right away or wait for the next generation of designs.