Zhongtai Securities: AI computing power drives the liquid cooling industry to upgrade domestic equipment and ushered in new opportunities
The Zhitong Finance App learned that Zhongtai Securities released a research report saying that the increase in AI computing power consumption is driving liquid cooling into a large-scale implementation cycle. The market competes in a hierarchical manner, and domestic manufacturers have accelerated breakthroughs in domestic production lines. Japanese equipment has stability advantages in ultra-microchannel cold plates and high-end joint processing tools. It mainly serves Nvidia's Taiwanese supply chain, but the price is high and the delivery cycle is long. Domestic manufacturers quickly respond to customer needs through model customization, self-research on key components, and direct sales. Relying on a complete machine tool matrix, Qiao Feng Intelligence has become the main force for domestic component manufacturers to expand production; the card position Manifold straightening and correction equipment of Jizhi Co., Ltd. is in the verification and climbing stage.
The main views of Zhongtai Securities are as follows:
Increased AI computing power consumption drives liquid cooling into a large-scale implementation cycle. The power consumption of high-end GPUs continues to rise, air cooling has reached the performance ceiling, and liquid cooling has moved from pilot to batch application. The cold plate type has become mainstream due to adaptation to stock transformation and the maturity of the industrial chain; the immersion type has stronger cooling performance, but the penetration rate is relatively slower due to cost and operation and maintenance restrictions.
Manufacturing standards for key cold plate components have been raised significantly, driving capital expenses for upstream equipment. The cold plate, Manifold liquid distribution manifold, and UQD quick joint are key components on the secondary side of the cold plate type. Parts production has moved from sample proofing to large-scale mass production, putting forward strict requirements for microchannel dimensional tolerances, cleanliness, batch yield, and process traceability. The expansion of parts production is transmitted to upstream manufacturing equipment, and liquid cooling processing equipment ushered in a growth window.
Liquid cooling processing equipment is divided into general machine tools and special process equipment. Most of the general equipment is upgraded to meet existing production capacity. Liquid cooling mainly relies on mature models for configuration and process optimization. Drilling machines are used for milling cold plates and shunt blocks; vertical and horizontal machining centers process manifolds and shells; rotary parts such as walkers and turning/milling composite processing quick joints; five-axis equipment faces special-shaped complex flow channels. Part of production capacity can shift from 3C and new energy thermal management stocks, and demand follows linear growth in production capacity.
Significant increases in the industry come from advanced precision upgrades and pipeline straightening equipment. In terms of high-end precision processing equipment, oxygen-free copper ultra-microchannel processing is prone to burrs, chip blockages, and vibrations. Combined with OCP and domestic intelligent calculation, demand for ultrasonic drilling, high-rigidity five-axis, and turn-milling composites has increased, covering the procurement of new production lines and process transformation of existing production lines. In terms of Manifold straightening and twisting equipment, overseas Taiwanese companies rely on pre-process preparation and manual tooling to complete small-batch delivery, but the consistency is poor, digital traceability is lacking, and it is not suitable for large-scale domestic mass production. Automated straightening and twisting equipment solves pipeline deformation and ensures the reliability of blind insertion and assembly. It is a new track spawned by liquid cooling, and there is no distribution of existing demand from other industries.
The market competes in a hierarchical manner, and domestic manufacturers have accelerated breakthroughs in domestic production lines. Japanese equipment has stability advantages in ultra-microchannel cold plates and high-end joint processing tools. It mainly serves Nvidia's Taiwanese supply chain, but the price is high and the delivery cycle is long. Domestic manufacturers quickly respond to customer needs through model customization, self-research on key components, and direct sales. Relying on a complete machine tool matrix, Qiao Feng Intelligence has become the main force for domestic component manufacturers to expand production; the card position Manifold straightening and correction equipment of Jizhi Co., Ltd. is in the verification and climbing stage.
Risk warning: There is a risk that policy changes fall short of expectations, industry development falls short of expectations, domestic and foreign market development falls short of expectations, performance of relevant targets falls short of expectations, information used in research reports will not be updated in a timely manner, etc.;