NVIDIA's CEO Jensen Huang has confirmed that the next DGX AI system will be "liquid-cooled," opening a new opportunity in the domain of data centers.
NVIDIA Aims To Utilize Liquid Cooling With Its Next-Gen DGX AI Systems, Promising Huge Gains In Power & Thermal Efficiencies
For starters, this announcement was unexpected since NVIDIA's CEO disclosed it during a conference. Liquid Cooling has been picking up the pace in the data center & AI server segment with firms dedicating huge investments towards manufacturing plants for AI liquid cooling equipment. With that, liquid cooling data centers will require a hefty amount of R&D work and adequate infrastructure to maintain them; hence, it is highly probable that NVIDIA has done its homework in this department.
Jensen confirms next Nvidia DGX AI computer will be liquid cooled pic.twitter.com/QFo9htN1fm
— tae kim (@firstadopter) March 9, 2024
The use of liquid cooling in data centers has pros and cons, with the primary benefits involving a higher and more efficient cooling process and a higher server rack density since liquid cooling enables closer packing of servers within racks. However, its high initial cost and the complexities involved in maintaining the overall mechanism have hindered its industry adoption until now. With the advancements in onboard equipment, data centers will ultimately need a better cooling system than proprietary air cooling, and it seems like liquid cooling is the way to go.
Firms like SMCI, Intel, and many others have already announced plans for liquid-cooled servers, and NVIDIA has finally joined the race. However, an interesting point has been made by Patrick Moorhead, Founder, CEO, and Chief Analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, who says that existing methods like node shrinking, disassembling components for better cooling, and optimizing packaging have done their part in terms of significant performance gains without exceeding thermal or power limitations. In layman's terms, he says that the data center industry has reached a point where there is a dire need for fundamental innovation, and replacing cooling solutions won't do the job.
So we’ve pulled nearly every lever so far to optimize performance at a kinda reasonable degree of heat/power: Node shrinks, disaggregated designs and packaging. What’s next, liquid nitrogen? Optical packaging? Hard move to ASICs? Faster networking? Seems like we need to press the… https://t.co/fmuvy86DTg
— Patrick Moorhead (@PatrickMoorhead) March 9, 2024
Well, Patrick's statement is justified to a particular point, but let's not forget that the industry progresses generation-wise, and you can't just bring in a sudden change hoping for everyone to adjust it since the AI and data center segment has expanded a lot recently times and isn't in the power of a single person.
The switch to liquid cooling is a great option periodically since it reduces electricity consumption, provides better thermal dissipation, and is a healthy change for a segment as a whole. Regarding the cost, let's not forget that NVIDIA gained almost 2 trillion market cap from the AI segment, with data center revenue playing a considerable role. We can expect to hear more on the next-gen liquid cooling DGX systems from NVIDIA during GTC 2024 which is just a few days away.
News Source: Tae Kim
About the author: Muhammad Zuhair is a hardware and technology reporter for Wccftech, specializing in the semiconductor industry and the complex interplay between technology, manufacturing, and geopolitics. His coverage focuses on the corporate strategies and technological roadmaps of industry giants like TSMC, NVIDIA, Samsung, and Intel. Zuhair's expertise lies in deconstructing complex topics such as fabrication nodes (e.g., 2nm process), the economic impact of policies like the CHIPS Act, and the strategic development of AI infrastructure from NVIDIA, AMD and Intel.
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