According to a research report from Guotai Haitong, 2025 can be regarded as the "inaugural year" for the implementation of liquid cooling in data centers. Various global regions are imposing stringent constraints on the Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of new data centers, driving energy conservation and emission reduction efforts. This shift is elevating liquid cooling from an "optional configuration" to a "compliance-required" necessity. From a technological standpoint, the competition and complementarity between the two primary technical pathways—cold plate and immersion cooling—are currently steering the direction of the liquid cooling industry. Presently, cold plate technology, commanding an 80% market share, solidifies its position as the mainstream solution for commercial deployment. Meanwhile, immersion cooling, recognized for its ultimate heat dissipation potential, is widely considered the core direction for future high-density computing scenarios. The iteration of liquid cooling technology continues to advance rapidly. Innovative versions of existing systems, such as two-phase change cold plates and microchannel lids, are becoming critical options for high-end ASIC/GPU platforms like Rubin and Rubin Ultra. This evolutionary trend will directly drive the expansion of coolant types from water-based solutions towards higher value-added directions, including fluorinated working fluids. The choice of coolant directly impacts the entire liquid cooling system's safety, lifespan, and operational maintenance costs, making it one of the highest value-density segments within the liquid cooling industry chain. Different types of liquid cooling systems exhibit significant differences in structural design, working principles, and application scenarios, consequently imposing diverse requirements on the physical and chemical properties of the coolants. Cold plate liquid cooling systems are predominantly led by water-based solutions. Oil-based coolants, broadly referring to cooling media based on organic hydrocarbons, are widely used in single-phase immersion cooling systems. Fluorinated liquids represent the most ideal coolant medium for data centers; however, due to cost considerations, they are currently better suited for high-power application scenarios with demanding heat dissipation requirements, such as two-phase cold plates, immersion cooling, and microchannel applications. Analyzing the competitive landscape, the water-based coolant market is highly open with numerous participants and no clear monopolies. The oil-based coolant market, primarily consisting of synthetic hydrocarbons, is highly specialized, features high technical barriers, is dominated by foreign brands, and has a clear industrial chain division. Currently, a cohort of domestic enterprises, represented by Sinopec's Great Wall Lubricant, is rapidly catching up, focusing on cost optimization and import substitution. The silicone oil market has always had limited application, failing to form a scaled industrial ecosystem, and overall presents characteristics of being a "niche specialty, with few participants, foreign dominance, and an absence of domestic players." The fluorinated liquid industry is undergoing a profound transformation; traditional international giants like 3M are strategically exiting due to environmental factors, while a group of Chinese enterprises with technical accumulation and industrial chain advantages are accelerating their rise, striving to seize this historic window of opportunity for "import substitution." The development of data center coolants is progressing along a four-dimensional path of "higher efficiency, lower energy consumption, superior environmental friendliness, and more intelligent systems." This evolution is manifested in the contextualization of technical routes, diversification of material systems, servitization of industrial ecosystems, and greening of entire operational processes. In the future, coolants will not merely be single-function media but will evolve into comprehensive thermal management solutions deeply integrated with materials science, thermodynamics, and intelligent control technologies. Risk warnings include risks associated with technological iteration and route competition, fluctuations in market demand and slower-than-expected technology penetration, supply chain and cost risks, and environmental policy and regulatory risks.
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