What is Hybrid air and liquid cooling?
Most direct-to-chip deployments are hybrid at the rack level. Cold plates remove GPU and CPU heat while fans and room or rear-door systems handle memory, power, storage, and network components.
Cooling architecture • Technology
Hybrid air and liquid cooling
A facility combines liquid capture at high-heat components with air cooling for the rest of the rack.
hybridair coolingliquid coolingtransition
MaturityScaling
Cooling mediumLiquid plus conditioned air
Typical applicationBroadly applicable from 30–150+ kW racks
Architecture
How heat moves
Most direct-to-chip deployments are hybrid at the rack level. Cold plates remove GPU and CPU heat while fans and room or rear-door systems handle memory, power, storage, and network components.
01Parallel chip-to-liquid and component-to-air paths
Why teams choose it
- Supports phased migration from air to liquid
- Preserves compatibility with mixed hardware fleets
- Lets operators target liquid cooling where it creates the most value
What to validate
- Two thermal systems must be sized, controlled, and maintained
- Liquid capture ratio changes by server and GPU generation
- Residual room-air load can remain material
Connected records
Companies in this category
Company
Vertiv
A global critical-infrastructure supplier spanning thermal management, liquid cooling, power, controls, and prefabricated systems for data centers.
Westerville, Ohio, United States
Company
Schneider Electric
An energy-management and automation group with an expanding chip-to-chiller portfolio for high-density and AI data centers.
Rueil-Malmaison, France
Company
Trane Technologies
A global climate company combining chillers, heat rejection, controls, and LiquidStack liquid-cooling technology for data centers.
Swords, Ireland
Company
Modine
A thermal-management company whose data-center portfolio includes perimeter, ceiling, and liquid-cooling infrastructure through Airedale.
Racine, Wisconsin, United States
Connected records
Required equipment
Equipment category
Coolant distribution units
CDUs control flow, pressure, temperature, water quality, and heat exchange between facility and technology cooling loops.
5 tracked suppliers
Equipment category
Data center air handlers
Fan and coil systems that condition and move air through rooms, galleries, or modular data halls.
4 tracked suppliers
Equipment category
Data center chillers
Mechanical-refrigeration systems that produce chilled or elevated-temperature water for facility cooling loops.
5 tracked suppliers
Connected records
Tracked deployments
Deployment
Submer Barcelona AI data center
Submer announced a 56 MW owned and operated liquid-cooled data center in Barcelona as a showcase for its facility platform.
Barcelona, Spain · Planned
Deployment
Madhya Pradesh–Submer AI capacity program
The Government of Madhya Pradesh and Submer signed an MoU covering up to 1 GW of liquid-cooled, AI-ready data-center capacity.
Madhya Pradesh, India · Planned
Deployment
LiquidStack 300 MW U.S. multi-site order
An undisclosed U.S. data-center operator ordered 300 MW of LiquidStack CDU-1MW capacity for multiple AI-ready sites.
Multiple sites, United States · Deploying
Evidence ledger
Primary sources
Profiles distinguish company-reported claims from confirmed operating data. Open the original materials before relying on a specification.
- 01
Direct answers
Frequently asked questions
Concise answers generated from the structured record and its cited evidence.
Where is Hybrid air and liquid cooling typically used?
Hybrid air and liquid cooling is classified as scaling technology. Broadly applicable from 30–150+ kW racks.
What are the main advantages of Hybrid air and liquid cooling?
Supports phased migration from air to liquid; Preserves compatibility with mixed hardware fleets; Lets operators target liquid cooling where it creates the most value.