Data center liquid cooling market driven by hyperscale and AI workloads

SkyQuest Technology Consulting has published a technical market analysis titled “Data Center Liquid Cooling Market – Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2025-2032.” The report values the data center liquid cooling market at USD 3.62 billion in 2024 and projects growth to USD 19.44 billion by 2032, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.4 percent. SkyQuest attributes this expansion to the rising adoption of immersion and direct liquid cooling to manage high-density hardware, particularly in hyperscale, public cloud, and high-performance computing data centers.

Immersion cooling and other advanced liquid cooling methods directly dissipate heat from electronic components using non-conductive fluids, an approach that maintains server operating temperatures and can reduce cooling energy consumption. SkyQuest notes these systems are gaining traction as traditional air cooling becomes less effective and more costly in dense environments supporting artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud workloads. Recent industry activity illustrates the trend: in April 2025, Fujitsu announced a partnership with Super Micro Computer and Nidec Corporation to integrate Fujitsu’s liquid-cooling monitoring software, Super Micro’s GPU servers, and Nidec’s liquid-cooling hardware for optimized power consumption. In April 2024, ExxonMobil and Intel announced development and testing of new liquid cooling fluids for data centers, targeting greater energy and water efficiency compatible with Intel x86 platforms. And in January 2024, Aligned Data Centers introduced the DeltaFlow system, a turnkey liquid cooling solution supporting up to 300 kW per rack and integrating with air-cooled Delta³ systems, compatible with immersion, rear-door heat exchangers, and direct-to-chip technologies.

SkyQuest segments the liquid cooling market by offering (solutions/services), data center type (including enterprise, hyperscale/public cloud, and colocation/managed), data center size, cooling model (rack/row-based versus room-based), infrastructure (including dielectric fluids and synthetic oils), and application (server, storage, and networking cooling). In 2024, solutions for hyperscale and edge data centers drove most growth, with server cooling dominating application share due to the heat profile of dense AI and high-performance computing equipment. Rack/row-based liquid cooling models led due to energy efficiency and effectiveness in high-density setups. Direct sales channels were preferred by large operators, and the IT and telecom sector led vertical segment share, driven by growth of 5G, hyperscale buildout, and data traffic.

SkyQuest highlights technical and operational challenges in broader adoption. These include high upfront infrastructure requirements, such as specialized plumbing and cooling distribution equipment, which can be a barrier for operators with existing facilities or capex constraints.

The competitive landscape features vendors such as Rittal, 3M, Schneider Electric, CoolIT Systems, IBM, Mitsubishi Electric, STULZ, Submer Technologies, and Vertiv. SkyQuest reports that these companies are developing and deploying direct-to-chip and immersion systems designed to enhance thermal management and reduce reliance on air cooling. Regional analysis shows North America is currently the largest market due to hyperscale investment, with Asia-Pacific the fastest-growing region, driven by increased cloud and AI adoption in China, India, Japan, and South Korea.

Source: SkyQuest Technology Consulting