Zhongtai: AI computing power drives upgrade of the liquid cooling industry; domestic equipment welcomes new opportunities.

Zhongtai released a research report stating that rising AI computing power consumption is driving liquid cooling into a large-scale deployment cycle. The market features tiered competition, with domestic manufacturers accelerating breakthroughs on domestic production lines. Japanese equipment holds a stability advantage in ultra-microchannel cold plate and high-end connector processing, mainly serving Nvidia's Taiwan-based supply chain, but at high prices and with long delivery cycles. Domestic manufacturers respond quickly to customer needs through model customization, in-house development of key components, and direct sales. Jirfine Intelligent Equipment, leveraging a complete machine tool matrix, has become the main force for capacity expansion among domestic component manufacturers; Hangzhou Jizhi Mechatronic has positioned itself in Manifold straightening and torsion-correction equipment and is in the verification and ramp-up stage. Zhongtai's main viewpoints are as follows: Rising AI computing power consumption is driving liquid cooling into a large-scale deployment cycle. High-end GPU power consumption continues to rise, air cooling has reached its performance ceiling, and liquid cooling is moving from pilot projects to batch application. Cold plate liquid cooling has become mainstream due to its suitability for retrofitting existing facilities and its mature supply chain; immersion cooling offers stronger heat dissipation performance but has a relatively slower penetration pace due to cost and O&M constraints. Manufacturing standards for key cold plate components have risen significantly, driving upstream equipment capital expenditure. Cold plates, Manifold liquid distribution manifolds, and UQD quick connectors are key components on the secondary side of cold plate systems. Component production is shifting from sample prototyping to large-scale mass production, imposing strict requirements on microchannel dimensional tolerances, cleanliness, batch yield, and process traceability. Component capacity expansion is transmitting to the upstream manufacturing equipment segment, creating a growth window for liquid cooling processing equipment. Liquid cooling processing equipment is divided into general-purpose machine tools and specialized process equipment. General-purpose equipment is mostly adapted and upgraded from existing capacity, with liquid cooling mainly relying on mature models for configuration and process optimization. Drilling and tapping machines are used for milling cold plates and distribution blocks; vertical and horizontal machining centers process manifolds and housings; Swiss-type lathes and turn-mill compound machines process rotary parts such as quick connectors; five-axis equipment is used for complex irregular flow channels. Some capacity can be transferred from existing 3C and new energy thermal management capacity, with demand growing linearly with capacity. Important industry increments come from high-end precision upgrades and tube straightening equipment. In high-end precision processing equipment, oxygen-free copper ultra-microchannel processing is prone to burrs, chip clogging, and chatter marks. Combined with the access thresholds of OCP and domestic intelligent computing, demand is rising for ultrasonic drilling and tapping machines, high-rigidity five-axis machines, and turn-mill compound machines, covering both new production line procurement and process upgrades of existing lines. In Manifold straightening and torsion-correction equipment, overseas Taiwanese companies rely on pre-process planning and manual tooling to complete small-batch deliveries, but with poor consistency and a lack of digital traceability, making them unsuitable for large-scale domestic mass production. Automated straightening and torsion-correction equipment addresses tube deformation and ensures blind-mate assembly reliability. It is a brand-new track spawned by liquid cooling, with no existing demand diversion from other industries. The market features tiered competition, with domestic manufacturers accelerating breakthroughs on domestic production lines. Japanese equipment holds a stability advantage in ultra-microchannel cold plate and high-end connector processing, mainly serving Nvidia's Taiwan-based supply chain, but at high prices and with long delivery cycles. Domestic manufacturers respond quickly to customer needs through model customization, in-house development of key components, and direct sales. Jirfine Intelligent Equipment, leveraging a complete machine tool matrix, has become the main force for capacity expansion among domestic component manufacturers; Hangzhou Jizhi Mechatronic has positioned itself in Manifold straightening and torsion-correction equipment and is in the verification and ramp-up stage. Risk warnings: policy changes falling short of expectations, industry development falling short of expectations, domestic and overseas market development falling short of expectations, performance of relevant targets falling short of expectations, and risks that information used in the research report may not be updated in a timely manner;