The APAC data center cooling market hosts various active vendors offering different types of solutions. Vendors that provide innovative and advanced technologies stand a better chance of securing a larger market share throughout the forecast period (2023-2029). Some of the prominent cooling infrastructure providers operating in the APAC data center cooling market include: 4energy, 3M, Asetek, Black Box, Carrier, Condair, Daikin Applied, Delta Electronics, Johnson Controls, Mitsubishi Electric, STULZ, Schneider Electric Rittal, Vertiv, and so on.

In the APAC data center cooling market, many colocation operators are adopting advanced cooling technologies in their data centers. This new technology involves submerging computer servers in a special liquid that helps keep them cool. This will increase opportunities for vendors offering advanced cooling solutions to increase their revenue share in the APAC data center cooling industry. For instance, in May 2024, LG Uplus announced that it had developed a new data center in Paju, South Korea. The company also announced that it is equipped with an immersion cooling system.

China held the largest APAC data center cooling market share in terms of investment, with around 45% share in 2023, followed by Australia, India, Hong Kong, South Korea, New Zealand, and the rest of the APAC countries. In 2023, there was a substantial increase in data center investments within the region. This surge was propelled by a rise in internet users, a heightened presence on social media platforms, widespread smartphone usage, an increased embrace of cloud services, and a growing necessity for
enterprises to shift from server room setups to more advanced data center environments.

Singapore stands out as a key hub for data center investments in Southeast Asia, thanks to the significant presence of both local and international data center operators. The increasing reliance on digital services, the growth of content providers, expanding internet penetration, and the widespread adoption of cloud services are anticipated to fuel the demand for data generation, data traffic, and robust storage and connectivity solutions. Consequently, this surge in demand is expected to drive the establishment and expansion of data centers and propel the APAC data center cooling market growth.

Rising adoption of AI will drive demand for ‘Advanced Cooling Technologies’

As the use of AI applications continues to grow in data centers, power distribution complexity will increase. AI adoption will increase the demand for cooling systems because data centers constantly increase their rack power density, increasing the load of data centers. AI, IoT, and ML consume a lot of data, producing heat in the data center.

Data centers have adopted the latest cooling technology, which is less cost-effective and eco-friendly. The demand for the latest cooling technology will increase rapidly in two to three years, and many data centers are using traditional cooling methods to convert to the latest cooling technologies because of AI.

Growing ‘Rack Power Density’

As a data center adopts advanced technologies like AI and ML, power demands per rack can reach 20 kW to 80 kW per rack and generate substantial heat. Effective cooling is crucial to prevent equipment failures and downtime but consumes significant energy. Given rising energy costs and environmental regulations, there is a growing need for more energy-efficient cooling solutions.

Liquid cooling technology has become a highly effective solution to the heat challenge data centers face. According to the Uptime Institute, advanced liquid cooling is more cost-effective and efficient when the rack density goes beyond 20 kW to 25 kW. Cloud service providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and major internet companies such as Meta often operate at higher power densities, ranging from 10 kW to 14 kW per rack. For newer high-density AI workloads, the power density can surpass 20 kW per rack.

Innovations in ‘Data Center Cooling Techniques’

As computing power requirements and performance expectations continue to rise, driven by advances in technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and Machine Learning (ML), the demand for power usage will increase; this will result in elevated temperatures in both data center infrastructure and IT equipment.

The growth of liquid-based cooling techniques is higher among direct liquid-based and immersion cooling solutions. The adoption of chilled water systems is likely to decline over the next few years due to the growing need for cooling solutions that do not require water to reduce the water consumption in the data centers. Data center operators also constantly install on-site water tanks, water treatment plants, and recycling plants to reduce water consumption.

Prominent trends

The APAC region mostly has a warm climate, and data centers that operate in warm climatic conditions adopt free-cooling chillers with smart technologies since they enable operations based on outside temperatures.

The adoption of chiller units is expected to be high in India, Southeast Asia, and the rest of APAC. Multiple data centers are considering adopting free-cooling chillers in China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. This is because most operators slowly move toward evaporative coolers, considering the PUE benefits these systems offer in terms of operation.

The growth of liquid-based cooling techniques is higher among direct liquid-based cooling and immersion cooling solutions; the adoption of chilled water systems will likely decline over the next few years due to the growing need for cooling solutions that do not require water to reduce water consumption in data centers.


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