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AI ASIC market shifts to liquid cooling with major capacity expansions by Chicony and Shuanghong
Sunday, February 15, 2026 at 05:59 AM
AI ASIC thermal management is shifting rapidly from air to liquid cooling as Google, AWS, and Meta scale custom chip production. AWS Trainium 3 will utilize a modified liquid cooling design involving Rear Door Cooling to speed up 2026 data center deployment. NVIDIA's transition to the Rubin architecture is expected to increase the number of water-cooling plates per switch tray from two to four, raising total water-cooling system value by 30%. Suppliers Chicony and Shuanghong are expanding capacity in Vietnam and Thailand, with Chicony targeting a monthly capacity of 700,000 water-cooling plates.
Context
The AI server market is rapidly transitioning to liquid cooling as Meta, Amazon, and Google ramp up custom ASIC production. Despite rumors of a "return to air" for Amazon’s Trainium 3, high power densities require Rear Door Cooling (RDHx) and internal water plates. Consequently, ASIC liquid cooling revenue is projected to climb from near zero today to 25% by 2027. This shift allows thermal suppliers to optimize margins through highly customized designs while supporting Nvidia’s upcoming Rubin architecture, which will double the water plates required for switch trays and increase total system value by 30%.
Leading suppliers Auras Technology and Chicony are scaling aggressively to capture this growth. Chicony is expanding its Vietnam capacity by 50%, aiming for 700,000 water plates monthly backed by a NT$15 billion investment. Shuanghong has already seen a 122% year-over-year revenue surge as it pivots toward cloud service providers. With shipments for Trainium 3 starting in Q2 and Google TPU in Q4, these expansions position the supply chain to dominate liquid-cooled infrastructure through 2026.
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