Shanghai Securities: The era of high-power computing has arrived; liquid cooling reshapes the green foundation of intelligent computing.

Shanghai Securities released a research report stating that AI large models and agent applications are driving sustained growth in computing power demand. In 2025, China's intelligent computing power scale reached 1,590 EFLOPS, with a target scale of 9,800 EFLOPS by 2030. Liquid cooling technology, leveraging the higher heat transfer efficiency of liquids, can reduce cooling system energy consumption and improve data center PUE. The firm believes that under the wave of intelligent computing infrastructure construction, green, low-carbon and sustainable development have become important guiding principles for computing infrastructure, and the value of liquid cooling technology continues to stand out. It recommends focusing on two major directions: liquid cooling systems and core components, and liquid-cooled servers and complete cabinets. Shanghai Securities' main viewpoints are as follows: Policy and demand dual-driven, intelligent computing moves toward green and low-carbon AI large models and agent applications are driving sustained growth in computing power demand. In 2025, China's intelligent computing power scale reached 1,590 EFLOPS, with a target scale of 9,800 EFLOPS by 2030. Electricity demand from computing centers is rising in tandem, with China's computing center electricity consumption reaching 196 billion kWh in 2025. Meanwhile, national and local governments continue to raise energy efficiency requirements for data centers. The "Data Center Green and Low-Carbon Development Special Action Plan" proposes that by the end of 2025, the PUE of newly built and expanded large and ultra-large data centers shall not exceed 1.25, and the PUE of data center projects at national hub nodes shall not exceed 1.2. Liquid cooling technology provides deep empowerment, reshaping the computing power cooling system AI chip power consumption continues to rise, and the increase in single-cabinet power density places higher demands on data center cooling capacity. Liquid cooling technology, leveraging the higher heat transfer efficiency of liquids, can reduce cooling system energy consumption and improve data center PUE. Among these, cold plate liquid cooling has high compatibility with existing air cooling systems, with relatively controllable retrofit difficulty and cost; immersion liquid cooling has cooling advantages in high heat flux density scenarios. TrendForce Consulting estimates that by 2026, the penetration rate of liquid cooling in AI chips will reach 53%; CCID CONSULTING estimates that China's liquid cooling data center market size will grow from RMB23.25 billion in 2026 to RMB47.04 billion in 2028. Benchmark projects accelerate implementation, industry practice value stands out Liquid cooling technology has been applied in multiple large-scale intelligent computing projects. China Mobile Limited's Hohhot Intelligent Computing Center has deployed 2,390 liquid-cooled intelligent computing servers, with the PUE of the intelligent computing portion as low as 1.15; China Telecom Corporation's Shaoguan 10,000-card cluster has deployed 30 domestic super nodes, fully adopting cold plate liquid cooling, completing construction, commissioning and going online in only 90 days; Inspur Electronic Information Industry's Yuanbrain Computing Power Factory has raised the load upper limit of liquid cooling cabinets to 130kW, with PUE reducible to below 1.1. The firm believes that under the wave of intelligent computing infrastructure construction, green, low-carbon and sustainable development have become important guiding principles for computing infrastructure, and the value of liquid cooling technology continues to stand out. It recommends focusing on two major directions: liquid cooling systems and core components, and liquid-cooled servers and complete cabinets. Risk warnings: downstream prosperity falling short of expectations; policy advancement falling short of expectations; technological innovation falling short of expectations; intensifying industry competition.