The data center liquid cooling market is on the cusp of explosive growth, with global revenue expected to nearly double in 2025 to roughly $3 billion before accelerating to around $7 billion by 2029, according to a new report from Dell’Oro Group. 

“Liquid cooling has crossed a critical threshold,” said Alex Cordovil, Research Director at Dell’Oro Group. “What was once an optional efficiency enhancement is now a functional requirement for large-scale AI deployments.” 

The report highlights hyperscale cloud providers as the primary drivers of this demand, accounting for a majority of market revenue. The rest is increasingly concentrated in colocation facilities purpose-built to support high-density AI workloads. As training large language models and other compute-intensive applications expand, thermal management has become a defining constraint—and liquid cooling a core infrastructure solution. 

That shift is reinforced by the next generation of chips. Thermal design power (TDP) for leading-edge GPUs is projected to surpass 4,000 watts by 2029, far beyond the limits of traditional air cooling. This trend underscores liquid cooling’s transformation from a high-efficiency niche technology into a structural necessity for next-generation data centers. 

Currently, single-phase direct liquid cooling (DLC) represents most new liquid-cooled capacity coming online. Its continued dominance will depend on advances in cold plate design and fluid distribution systems to handle escalating chip heat loads. 

On the competitive front, the market remains fluid. Vertiv leads globally in liquid cooling deployments, while established players such as CoolIT, nVent, and Boyd continue to hold meaningful share. Meanwhile, Aaon has emerged as a fast mover, leveraging deep partnerships with hyperscalers and tailored, high-density solutions to capture growing demand. 

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