Zhitong Finance learned from Huajin Securities' research report that under the strong demand for computing power for large-scale model training and inference, the power density of GPU servers will be greatly improved, which will put forward higher requirements for cooling equipment and technology in data centers. Traditional air cooling technology faces bottlenecks in high heat density scenarios, and liquid cooling technology with ultra-high efficiency and ultra-high heat density may become a necessary option for temperature control solutions in smart data centers. Currently, backplane liquid cooling is the most widely used and has the potential to form a leading advantage in smart data center liquid cooling solutions. In addition, according to IDC, the annual compound growth rate of China's liquid-cooled server market will reach 54.7% from 2022 to 2027, and the market size will reach 8.9 billion US dollars in 2027.

Focus on the following symbols: Shenzhen ENVICOOL Technology (002837.SZ), Shenling Environment (301018.SZ), Tongfei Technology (300990.SZ), Nanjing Canatal Data-Centre Environmental Tech (603912.SH), Range Intelligent Computing Technology Group Co. Ltd. (300442.SZ), Guangzhou Goaland Energy Conservation Tech Co. Ltd. (300499.SZ), Sugon (Beijing) Information Industry Co., Ltd. (872808.BJ).

Event: Recently, at the 2024 SIEPR Economic Summit, NVIDIA CEO revealed that the next generation of DGX GPU servers will use liquid cooling, and announced that the next generation of DGX servers will be launched soon. In the same month, Xinyisheng announced at the OFC2024 conference that it will launch an immersion 800G optical module to enter the liquid cooling market.

The main points of Huajin Securities are as follows:

Liquid cooling is a must-have for smart computing, and the explosive growth of the billion-dollar liquid cooling market

Under the strong demand for computing power for large-scale model training and inference, the power density of GPU servers will be greatly improved, which will put forward higher requirements for cooling equipment and technology in data centers. Traditional air cooling technology faces bottlenecks in high heat density scenarios, and liquid cooling technology with ultra-high efficiency and ultra-high heat density may become a necessary option for temperature control solutions in smart data centers. International Data Corporation (IDC) has released the latest "China Semi-Annual Liquid-Cooled Server Market (1H 2023) Tracking" report. The data shows that the Chinese liquid-cooled server market will continue to grow rapidly in 2023. In the first half of 2023, the Chinese liquid-cooled server market size reached 660 million US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 283.3%, and is expected to reach 1.51 billion US dollars for the whole year of 2023.

In addition, IDC predicts that the annual compound growth rate of China's liquid-cooled server market from 2022 to 2027 will reach 54.7%, and the market size will reach 8.9 billion US dollars in 2027.

Liquid cooling can significantly improve the cooling efficiency of data centers, and the three major advantages help the promotion of cold plate liquid cooling

Liquid cooling refers to the use of liquid instead of air as a refrigerant, to exchange heat with heating components and take away heat. Depending on the way the coolant contacts the heat source, it can be divided into indirect liquid cooling and direct liquid cooling. Indirect liquid cooling refers to the heat source of the server and the coolant having no direct contact heat exchange process, and is dominated by cold plate liquid cooling technology. Direct liquid cooling refers to the cooling method that directly contacts the heating components with the coolant. It includes immersion-type and spray-type liquid cooling technologies.

At present, cold plate liquid cooling is the most widely used technology and has the potential to form a leading advantage in liquid cooling solutions for smart data centers, mainly due to three advantages: 1. Strong compatibility. When choosing a coolant, only the compatibility between the coolant and the circulation pipeline and the cold plate needs to be considered, the transformation cost is relatively low, and there is no need to carry out large-scale renovation of the data center machine room. 2. Good cooling effect. The cooling effect and energy efficiency are far better than that of air cooling, which significantly improves the resource utilization rate of traditional rack-mounted air-cooled servers. 3. Low cost/high reliability. The application of cold plate liquid cooling technology replaces high-cost water-cooled units, and the reliability is higher because the liquid does not directly contact the equipment.

The cold plate is the core component of cold plate liquid cooling, and strong customization requires joint development with manufacturers.

Cold plate liquid cooling mainly indirectly transfers the heat of the components to the coolant enclosed in the circulation pipeline, and then uses the coolant to take away the heat. A cold plate liquid cooling system mainly consists of a cooling tower, CDU, primary and secondary liquid cooling pipelines, cooling medium, and liquid-cooled cabinet; the liquid-cooled cabinet includes a liquid-cooled plate, liquid-cooled pipeline inside the equipment, fluid connectors, and distributor. The cold plate is the core component of cold plate liquid cooling technology, and is usually made of highly thermally conductive materials such as copper or aluminum. There are usually a series of small channels on the cold plate. The liquid flows through these channels, contacts and absorbs heat with the cold plate. The customization of the cold plate is high, the production line and process of the liquid-cooled plate are non-standard, and the design of the liquid-cooled plate is different, which requires joint development with manufacturers who have technical experience.

The liquid cooling industry involves many aspects, and China's liquid cooling manufacturers are blooming.

液体冷却の代表的企業には、英维克、高澜股份、同飛股份、申菱環境、佳力图、曙光數創などがあります。ミドルウェアは、主に液体冷却サーバー、チップメーカー、液体冷却統合施設、モジュール、ラックなどで構成されている。ダウンストリームは、主にデータセンターの利用者で、3大電気通信事業者、第三者IDC企業などが含まれます。

現在、英维克はCoolinside液体冷却ラックと完全な液体冷却ソリューションを開発し、関連製品には、冷却源、パイプ接続、CDU分配、クイックコネクタ、Manifold、冷却板などが含まれています。スケール市販が済んでいます。

高澜股份の情報通信(ICT)熱管理製品は、液冷板式サーバー熱管理ソリューション、浸漬式液晶サーバー熱管理ソリューション、コンテナ液晶データセンターソリューションに主にあり、「液冷板、CDU(冷却流量調整ユニット)、多種類のタンク、多サイズのコンテナ」の各部品からデータセンターの設計、装置の統合、システムチューニング、装置の運用までシステム統合が含まれます。

曙光は、国内初の標準化された液体冷却データセンターを建設し、安定した運用を約2500日間継続しています。曙光数创の液体冷却ソリューションは、全国の複数の都市に展開され、液体冷却データセンターの累積建設規模は260MWを超えています。润泽科技は、業界で初めての全棟液体冷却スマート計算センターを2023年に納入しました。

リスク警告：客観的要因による建設の進捗が予想よりも遅れています。各地の政策の実施が遅れています。業界の転換の進行が予想よりも遅れています。