As NVIDIA pushes its next-generation AI infrastructure toward full liquid cooling, the first to feel the shift in data centers may be the companies behind the racks manufacturing cold plates, quick disconnects, CDUs, and pumps and valves.
The expansion of AI computing power is reshaping the position of the thermal management industry. The power consumption of high-end GPU clusters continues to rise. TrendForce estimates that the thermal design power (TDP) per rack for systems such as the GB200 and GB300 NVL72 is approximately 130 to 140 kilowatts. Servers can continue to be stacked, and power can continue to be supplied, but heat must be dissipated promptly. Otherwise, the higher the computing density, the more likely it is that frequency throttling, failures, and O&M costs will increase.
Market enthusiasm has subsequently spread to the A-share market. Envicool, Shenling Environment, Gaolan, Emicool, Kehua Data, as well as Feirongda, Feilong Auto Components, Kinglai, Jones, and Shenglan have all been included in the liquid cooling industry chain. Their proximity to liquid cooling varies: some already possess complete products and project delivery capabilities, some have completed customer onboarding, and some are still in the sampling and small-batch production stages. The true watershed for the liquid cooling theme is shifting from "whether they have products" to "whether they can generate revenue."
01. In the High-Power Era, Liquid Cooling Shifts from an Optional Choice to a Core Capability
Liquid cooling is not a new technology; mature accumulations already exist in thermal management for communication equipment, supercomputing centers, and NEVs (New Energy Vehicles). What changes the industry's trajectory is the power consumption curve of AI servers. GPUs, memory, high-speed interconnects, and power supply modules are concentrated in smaller spaces, gradually pushing traditional air-side cooling to its limits.
Cold plate liquid cooling has therefore become the most practical mainline in the near term. Cold plates are directly attached to heat-generating components such as GPUs and CPUs, forming a closed loop through manifolds, quick disconnects, and CDUs, while partially retaining the original air-cooling structure. New data centers can be planned synchronously, and existing computer rooms can undergo gradual retrofitting with air-liquid hybrid systems. Engineering compatibility determines that it is more likely to achieve large-scale deployment first.
Immersion liquid cooling has a higher upper limit. Servers or entire racks are immersed in dielectric coolant, which simplifies air-side equipment and is more attractive for ultra-high density and low water consumption scenarios. Sugon Cooling has long been deploying phase-change immersion liquid cooling, accumulating project experience in national-level intelligent computing centers and high-performance computing scenarios. However, server maintenance, coolant lifespan, material compatibility, maintenance methods, and O&M habits will all increase customer migration costs. Immersion cooling is more like a structural opportunity in specific scenarios, and it is difficult to replace cold plate liquid cooling as a unified solution in the short term.
The distribution of industrial value is also changing. A liquid cooling system involves cold plates, quick disconnects, manifolds, CDUs, pumps and valves, pipelines, racks, cold sources, control systems, and O&M. Leakage, pressure drop, corrosion, or fault switching issues in any link will affect the stable operation of the entire rack. What customers need is a system capable of long-term operation. The barriers for suppliers have expanded from heat exchange efficiency to collaborative design, platform certification, reliability testing, and on-site delivery.
Calculations from Soochow Securities' liquid cooling special report, widely cited by the market, show that the value of a single-rack liquid cooling system for the GB300 is approximately 100,000 US dollars, and about 200,000 US dollars for a single Rubin rack. Due to different statistical boundaries for the primary side, secondary side, racks, construction, and O&M, these figures cannot be treated as a unified price, but they illustrate that value is shifting toward CDUs, cold plates, quick disconnects, and system integration. Revenue elasticity exists for single-point components, but the order quality of system delivery deserves more attention.
02. Listed Companies Diverge; Valuation Must Return to Orders and Revenue
Envicool is a relatively complete mapping of liquid cooling equipment in China. The company covers cold plates, CDUs, quick disconnects, racks, liquid cooling working fluids, and cold sources, emphasizing its delivery capability from server factories to data center sites. Its industrial position leans towards a full-chain equipment provider. Valuation elasticity comes from the volume increase of liquid cooling and the rise in the proportion of system integration, while constraints arise from customer concentration, order confirmation, gross margin, and cash flow changes. Interactive information such as cumulative deliveries illustrates the engineering foundation but cannot replace the recognition of liquid cooling revenue in financial reports.
Shenling Environment is closer to cold plate liquid cooling, computer room temperature control, and containerized data centers. The company disclosed that cold plate liquid cooling has achieved batch delivery, the liquid cooling production line has been put into operation, and the order schedule extends to 2026. The core observation points for project-based business are acceptance, payment collection, and revenue recognition; the order schedule itself cannot be directly translated into profit forecasts. Only if the production line utilization rate and operating cash flow improve synchronously will the valuation logic shift from thematic trading to performance growth.
Emicool disclosed a full-stack liquid cooling solution for server and chip thermal management. Its products cover cold plate, immersion, liquid cooling containers, and 8 to 2,000 kilowatt CDUs, and it claims that CDUs have entered the stage of batch shipment. Kehua Data leans more towards system integration; its liquid cooling products have been applied in China Mobile data centers, liquid cooling containers have achieved overseas delivery, and it has also launched liquid cooling computing power PODs for high-performance GPU clusters. Both companies possess project and solution capabilities. Their valuation cannot simply apply equipment manufacturing multiples; it also depends on the proportion of liquid cooling in overall business and the profit margin.
Component companies have greater elasticity and rely more on customer validation. Feirongda has disclosed single-phase and two-phase liquid cooling cold plate modules, CDUs, and flow control products, and has formed supply cooperation with multiple server manufacturers, with some products delivered in batches. Feilong Auto Components focuses on electronic pumps and temperature control valves, and some server liquid cooling projects have already been supplied in batches. If they enter more server platforms, their revenue growth rate may be faster than traditional businesses, but the customer certification cycle and order concentration will amplify fluctuations.
Kinglai is deploying CDUs, manifolds, and clean fluid systems. The company explicitly states that the liquid cooling business is still in its early stages with a small scale. Jones possesses TIMs (Thermal Interface Materials), vapor chambers, liquid cooling cold plates, and microchannel structural components. Server materials are already supplied in batches, while liquid cooling modules are still in the customer onboarding and mass production promotion stages. Shenglan's UQDs (Universal Quick Disconnects) and liquid cooling plates have seen small-batch deliveries, but stable large-batch shipments have not yet been formed. Gaolan possesses cold plate, immersion, and secondary-side system capabilities, but the company also warns of uncertainties in the scale expansion of its computing power liquid cooling business. The aforementioned companies have positions in the industry chain. Currently, they should be valued according to their commercialization stages and cannot be priced at once based on long-term market space.
The valuation divergence of liquid cooling companies ultimately comes down to six questions: whether they have entered a specific chip or server platform, whether customer certification is completed, whether batch orders have emerged, whether projects have been accepted, whether liquid cooling revenue can be disclosed separately, and whether gross profit and cash flow can improve synchronously. Only when the four links of product, customer, order, and revenue are gradually connected will the liquid cooling theme precipitate into corporate value.
Valuation methods also need to change according to the stage of the company. For companies that have not yet formed stable revenue, it is suitable to observe R&D investment, customer certification, and capacity preparation; the long-term market space can only provide an imagination boundary. For equipment manufacturers that have already delivered in batches, relative valuation can be used to observe the growth premium by combining order growth rate, revenue recognition, and cash flow. For companies with many years of data center business where the proportion of liquid cooling revenue is still low, liquid cooling should be regarded as an option for business structure improvement, and the entire corporate value cannot be built on the single narrative of liquid cooling. For project-based companies, changes in contract liabilities, accounts receivable, and inventory sometimes reflect order quality earlier than single-quarter revenue growth.
The role of the policy side will also gradually shift from promotion and publicity to project constraints. The green and low-carbon development policy for data centers proposes requirements for energy efficiency, water conservation, and energy conservation reviews. The retrofitting of local existing computer rooms also lists high-PUE projects as optimization targets. Liquid cooling can help high-density racks improve air-side cooling, but it cannot automatically bring lower total energy consumption; pumps, CDUs, chillers, and water treatment systems also need to be included in the accounting. If future bidding and acceptance begin to uniformly compare PUE, WUE, rack power, reliability, and full-year operation data, the real technical capabilities of enterprises will be more easily distinguished.
AI liquid cooling is transforming from thermal management equipment into computing power infrastructure. The future market will advance along the path of first scaling up in newly built intelligent computing centers and gradually retrofitting existing computer rooms. Cold plate liquid cooling will undertake the near-term task of scaling, while immersion liquid cooling will seek breakthroughs in ultra-high density scenarios. Envicool, Shenling Environment, Emicool, and Kehua Data are closer to equipment and project delivery. Feirongda and Feilong Auto Components correspond to component elasticity. Gaolan and early-layout companies still need to wait for order and revenue validation. What determines the valuation in the next stage is not the heat of the concept, nor a market space chart, but whether the continuously rising temperature in the racks can ultimately be translated into revenue and profit in financial reports.