Dell’Oro Group raises market forecast for liquid cooling and rack power distribution

“We raised our outlook as a result of three factors,” said Tam Dell’Oro, Founder of Dell’Oro Group. “First, actual results through 2024 exceeded our predictions, second, shipments of accelerated computing (and high-end GPUs), designed to handle AI workloads exceeded our prior forecast and we have learned that demand—which remains robust—is spreading from Tier 1 to Tier 2 Cloud Service Providers. Third, governments and Tier 1 Telecom Operators are becoming involved in enabling data center expansion, which means this is a long-term trend. DCPI deployments are a prerequisite to support AI workloads.

“The proliferation of accelerated computing to support AI and ML workloads has emerged as a major DCPI market driver which is significantly increasing data center power and thermal management requirements. For example, the average rack power density today is around 15 kW/rack, but AI workloads will require 60 – 120 kW/rack to support accelerated servers in close proximity. While this jump in rack power density will trigger innovation and product development on the power distribution side, a bigger change is unfolding in thermal management – the transition from air to liquid cooling,” added Dell’Oro.

Additional highlights from the Data Center Physical Infrastructure 5-Year January 2025 Forecast Report:

• Forecast strong growth in 2025 and 2026, as Tier 1 and some Tier 2 Service Providers deploy “at-scale” accelerated computing and the DCPI infrastructure to support it.

• Asia Pacific (excluding China), North America and Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) are forecast to grow at the fastest CAGRs during the forecast period.

• Although the Top 10 Cloud SPs will build purpose-built facilities for AI inferencing, Colocation (wholesale and retail) to play a bigger role in building AI inferencing facilities over the long term.