LG Electronics CEO Ryu Jae-cheol has placed cooling technology at the heart of AI data center competitiveness. The logic is straightforward: by cutting the electricity used for cooling, more power can be redirected toward AI computing.
In a LinkedIn post on the 20th, Ryu stated, "Cooling does more than reduce its own energy consumption — it creates meaningful change by freeing up more electricity for AI computing." He had previously published a signed article on the 19th local time outlining a cooling strategy for AI data centers.
Ryu summarized the constraints facing data centers as power, water, and space. He judged that under limited resources, how much computing power can be generated from existing resources has become the core issue. The perspective on Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) has also shifted. PUE is the ratio of total data center power to IT equipment power; the closer to 1, the less electricity is used for auxiliary equipment such as cooling.
Ryu explained, "As AI computing scales up, PUE increasingly depends on what proportion of available power can be allocated to AI operations." He identified "adaptability" as an essential competitive capability for AI infrastructure, because AI hardware evolves faster than the facilities supporting it — whenever a new chip is released, cooling equipment must change accordingly.
He also said efficiency evaluation standards should be broadened. Ryu remarked, "Efficiency assessment should go beyond PUE to also consider how easily a cooling system can be adjusted and re-validated for new hardware, how much energy is used in transferring heat from chips to coolers, and how reliably it can operate under local power, water, and climate conditions."
He further called for a transformation in how data centers are designed and operated. His argument is that IT, power, and cooling solutions should not be optimized separately, but integrated into a single system centered on AI computing performance. Ryu emphasized, "Ultimately, the competitiveness of next-generation AI infrastructure depends on how sustainably computing power can be delivered under the constraints of limited power, water, and space." He added, "Cooling plays a critical role in both computing capacity and resource efficiency."
LG Electronics is responding by reducing cooling energy consumption, recovering waste heat, and managing overall data center energy efficiency. Its main products include large chillers that produce cooling water, CDUs (Coolant Distribution Units) that distribute and supply cooling water to the server side, and air-cooling devices FWUs (Fan Wall Units), along with heat pumps and energy management solutions.
Ryu added, "LG's portfolio covers chillers, CDUs, FWUs, heat pumps, and energy management solutions." He continued, "By integrating these technologies, the goal is to improve overall data center energy management rather than merely optimizing individual components."
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