Guotai Haitong: Revolutionary AI Chip Cooling Materials, Global Businesses Actively Deploying Diamond Heat Dissipation Technology

Guotai Haitong released a research report stating that with the increasing demand for AI large model training and inference, AI chips are evolving towards high computing power and high power consumption, with advanced heat dissipation becoming an important factor in unleashing computing power. Diamond, with its ultra-high thermal conductivity, low thermal expansion coefficient, and other advantages, is expected to become an important heat dissipation solution for high-end AI chips. Currently, global companies are actively pursuing diamond heat dissipation, with overseas manufacturers having a first-mover advantage in CVD diamond materials and system applications, while domestic companies are accelerating towards semiconductor-grade materials and thermal management applications with the help of artificial diamond industry chain. Although there are still challenges in terms of cost and process maturity, as the power consumption of AI chips increases, the industrialization of diamond heat dissipation is expected to accelerate, with related materials, equipment, and application segments having long-term growth potential. Guotai Haitong's main points are as follows: - Diamond, with its outstanding thermal properties, has become an important material for heat dissipation for the next generation of high-power AI chips. - As the power consumption per chip continues to rise, traditional copper-based heat dissipation solutions face challenges in increasing heat flux density and controlling local hot spots. Diamond has a room temperature thermal conductivity of 2000-2200W/(mK), as well as a low thermal expansion coefficient that matches well with semiconductor materials such as silicon and silicon carbide, effectively reducing thermal stress. Known technical paths for diamond heat dissipation include diamond heat sinks, diamond/metal composites, and integrated diamond with micro-channel liquid cooling. From a technical perspective, the thermal conductivity of diamond-copper composite materials can reach around 800W/(mK), with relatively low process costs, making it a quickly deployable technology route. 2026 is expected to be the first year of commercialization for diamond heat dissipation on a large scale. - NVIDIA has explicitly stated that the new generation Vera Rubin architecture GPU will adopt a "diamond-copper composite heat dissipation cover + 45 degrees Celsius temperature water direct liquid cooling" heat dissipation system to effectively control the temperature of high-power chips. Intel CEO, Chen Liwu, also mentioned investing in a synthetic diamond wafer company, showing confidence in the potential of diamond as a heat dissipation material in chip packaging. In March 2026, diamond cooling technology pioneer Akash Systems announced the launch of a diamond-cooled AI server featuring the AMD Instinct MI350X GPU. If diamond heat dissipation solutions are widely applied in high-end scenarios, the potential market space is promising. - As chips evolve towards higher computing power density and liquid cooling and other thermal management solutions accelerate penetration, diamond heat dissipation will become an important technical direction for high-end AI chips. Combining data from PwC, the diamond heat dissipation market space is expected to reach $53.5 billion by 2030. Currently, many companies worldwide are conducting research and commercial verification of diamond heat dissipation technology, with Chinese companies having cost advantages, but still playing catch-up in high-end CVD technology, brand awareness, and customer certification cycles. Risk Warning: - AI computing power demand is lower than expected, market penetration rate is lower than expected, and process maturity improvement is lower than expected.