Insights / industry / rising
Direct-to-Chip Liquid Cooling & CDU (100kW+/rack) — cold plate / CDU / rear-door HX
Updated 6/8/2026
Direct-to-Chip Liquid Cooling & CDU (100kW+/rack) — cold plate / CDU / rear-door HX
**Companies committing:** nvent-electric, digital-realty, compass-datacenters, modine-manufacturing, munters, coolit-systems, asetek, iceotope.
**Opportunity:** Rack densities have crossed the 100kW threshold; air can no longer remove heat from H100/B100/B200 racks. Every colo + every cooling vendor needs a direct-to-chip or rear-door HX SKU on the shelf.
The market has stopped debating 'if liquid' — every hire here is account/PM-side (Modine, Munters, CoolIT, Asetek) plus reliability (Iceotope) and integrator (Digital Realty, Compass). Wave is shifting from product-build to channel/standardization. Reliability eng is the unsexy bottleneck (leak/endurance is what kills design wins).
_Evidence caveat: A1-only; no A4/A5 capital or wins recorded._
Companies committing