Top Data Center Liquid Cooling Companies in 2026: Cold Plate, CDU and Immersion Suppliers Compared

Last updated: October 2026

Two years ago, most data center liquid cooling companies were independent specialists. In 2026, the market belongs mostly to industrial giants. Ecolab paid roughly $4.75 billion for CoolIT Systems and closed the deal on July 2, 2026. Trane Technologies completed its acquisition of LiquidStack in March 2026. Schneider Electric took control of Motivair back in early 2025. The independents are being absorbed, and AI rack power keeps climbing.

For engineering and procurement teams, the question has changed. It's no longer "Who does liquid cooling?" but "Which layer am I buying, and who's strong there?" Data center liquid cooling is a chain that runs from the chip to the outdoors (if that chain is new to you, start with our introduction to liquid cooling). System integration, CDUs, rack manifolds and quick disconnects, cold plates, two-phase systems and immersion each have a different set of leading suppliers. This guide compares 18 liquid cooling data center companies side by side, layer by layer, so you can see who to talk to for your project.

Who Are the Top Data Center Liquid Cooling Companies?

The top data center liquid cooling companies in 2026 include APALTEK (cold plates, CDUs, manifolds, two-phase and immersion systems); Vertiv, Schneider Electric (Motivair), CoolIT Systems (Ecolab), LiquidStack (Trane) and Boyd (systems and CDUs); AVC and Auras (server cold plates); ZutaCore and Accelsius (two-phase direct-to-chip); and Submer, GRC and Iceotope (immersion).

How This List Is Organized

APALTEK publishes this guide, so we list ourselves first. The other 17 companies are grouped by technology layer: system and CDU providers, cold plate and component manufacturers, two-phase direct-to-chip specialists, and immersion cooling companies. The order within each group is not a ranking.

Everything we say about companies other than APALTEK comes from their own websites, financial filings, press releases and public reporting. We include only what can be verified publicly and don't judge any company as better or worse than another. Analyst and media estimates are clearly labeled as reported.

What Changed in 2025–2026: The Consolidation Wave

Liquid cooling went from a niche to a prize for industrial companies in about two years, and the reason is simple. A GB200 NVL72 rack draws roughly 120 to 132 kW, while a typical enterprise rack draws around 8 kW. Air can't carry that much heat away. The market has grown to match: MarketsandMarkets projects the data center liquid cooling market will grow from $2.84 billion in 2025 to $21.14 billion by 2032.

The deals that reshaped the market:

• Ecolab acquires CoolIT: About $4.75 billion, closed July 2, 2026. CoolIT now sits in Ecolab's Global Water segment.
• Trane acquires LiquidStack: Closed March 3, 2026. Trane also bought Stellar Energy, a turnkey data center cooling provider, the same year.
• Schneider Electric takes control of Motivair: Completed its purchase of a 75% stake in February 2025.
• LITEON invests in DCX: Announced in September 2026, roughly $176 million for about 25% of the Polish CDU and immersion maker.

For buyers, this means three things. First, the big vendors now have stronger balance sheets and service networks, but their lead times are tied to the same factories everyone else is waiting on. Second, parent companies often sell chillers and heat rejection equipment too, so expect bundled proposals. Third, a second source for CDUs and cold plates matters more than ever, and it's best to plan for one from the start.

18 Data Center Liquid Cooling Companies at a Glance

1. APALTEK: Cold Plates to CDUs, Built in One Factory

APALTEK is a liquid cooling manufacturer that designs and builds the layers of data center liquid cooling that depend most on manufacturing: the cold plates on the chips, the manifolds in the rack, and the CDUs that serve a single rack or an entire row. Unlike vendors whose business centers on system integration, we focus on whether each part can be customized to your platform, built consistently at volume, and connected on site without surprises.

• Cold plates: Our server CPU and GPU cold plates use vacuum-brazed copper construction, can be customized to your platform, and can integrate a vapor chamber. Browse our cold plate range.
• CDUs: Designed and built in-house, including in-rack CDUs rated at 5 kW and 150 kW and in-row CDUs rated at 1.5 MW and 2.5 MW. For how CDUs work, see what is a CDU.
• Manifolds and quick disconnects: Cold plates and manifolds can ship with quick disconnects preinstalled and leak-tested as a complete assembly, which cuts on-site work and leak risk.
• Liquid cooling modules: Both closed-loop and open-loop liquid cooling modules.
• Immersion cooling: Single-phase immersion, including an IDC immersion cooling system for data centers and an all-in-one edge immersion cooling system.
• Two-phase cooling: Our pump-driven two-phase direct-to-chip cooling system is coming soon, aimed at chips whose heat flux is beyond what single-phase cold plates handle comfortably.
• Quality and certifications: Every product we ship passes helium leak testing. APALTEK holds more than 300 patents, is certified to ISO 9001:2015, ISO 50001:2018 and IECQ QC080000:2017, and its products meet CE, FCC and UKCA requirements.
• Engineering support: Customers who order paid prototypes usually receive thermal simulation at no extra charge, and we reply to quote requests within one business day.

Best fit: Server OEMs and ODMs, system integrators, and new-platform programs that need custom cold plates and want cold plates, manifolds and CDUs from one factory, with fast prototyping that moves straight into volume production.

System and CDU Providers

Companies in this layer supply CDUs, and often cold plate loops, rear-door heat exchangers, chillers and power distribution as well. Data center operators and large turnkey projects usually start here.

2. Vertiv

Vertiv covers the full thermal chain: CDUs, cold plate integration, rear-door heat exchangers, chillers and heat rejection, plus power distribution and monitoring. It bought CDU specialist CoolTera in 2023, and its CoolChip CDU line includes a 2.3 MW liquid-to-liquid unit and a 350 kW liquid-to-air unit, both introduced in late 2024. On the deployment side, Vertiv reported in October 2026 that it had delivered liquid cooling infrastructure supporting 30 MW of AI workloads at CapitaLand's CLDC Mumbai 01 data center, using its secondary fluid network to carry coolant from the facility plant to the chips. Best fit: large builds where you want one vendor accountable for both power and cooling.

3. Schneider Electric (Motivair)

Schneider Electric completed its purchase of a 75% stake in Motivair in February 2025, and the combined business now sells liquid cooling as "Motivair by Schneider Electric." Motivair makes CDUs, cold plate loops and ChilledDoor rear-door heat exchangers. In January 2026 it introduced the MCDU-70, a 2.5 MW CDU that extends its CDU range from 105 kW to 2.5 MW; several units can run as one centralized system that scales past 10 MW. The CDUs plug into Schneider's EcoStruxure software, and Schneider's own strength in switchgear, grid connection and building automation sits alongside them. Best fit: projects where electrical design is the hardest part and you want power and cooling engineered together.

4. CoolIT Systems (Ecolab)

Founded in Calgary in 2001, CoolIT Systems makes cold plates, rack manifolds and CDUs and has a long record of OEM integration with major server makers. Its CDU range covers both liquid-to-liquid units, such as the CHx500, where four stacked units handle 2 MW in a single rack, and liquid-to-air units such as the AHx180 and AHx240. Since Ecolab closed the acquisition, CoolIT has sat in Ecolab's Global Water segment, and Ecolab plans to launch an end-to-end platform at SC26 in November 2026 that pairs CoolIT CDUs and cold plates with its 3D TRASAR monitoring and cooling fluids. Best fit: server OEM programs and projects that put coolant quality and long-term loop reliability first.

5. LiquidStack (Trane Technologies)

Based in Carrollton, Texas, LiquidStack sells both direct-to-chip CDUs and two-phase immersion cooling. Its CDU-1MW, launched in 2024, offers up to 1,350 kW of cooling with hot-swappable dual pumps and was the first in a family of CDUs designed to work with any direct-to-chip cold plate system. Trane Technologies held a minority stake from 2023, announced the full acquisition in February 2026 and completed it in March. Trane also bought turnkey data center cooling provider Stellar Energy the same year, so LiquidStack now sits inside a portfolio that runs from chillers to the chip. Best fit: buyers who want a single HVAC vendor responsible for heat rejection and CDUs.

6. Boyd

Boyd builds complete liquid loops from its own cold plates, manifolds, quick disconnects and CDUs and also serves demanding markets such as aerospace and defense. It is expanding its thermal campus in Juárez, Mexico, from about 217,000 to about 460,000 square feet, where it designs and builds CDUs from 0.5 to 5 MW. Developed with Alfa Laval, Boyd's ROL2300 in-row CDU delivers up to 2.3 MW of cooling using a custom brazed plate heat exchanger. Boyd runs design centers and manufacturing across three continents and offers commissioning and long-term maintenance. Best fit: projects that need high-capacity CDUs with local engineering and service in North America and Europe.

7. nVent

Headquartered in London with its U.S. management office in Minneapolis, nVent supplies enclosures, power distribution and liquid cooling for data centers. At SC25 in November 2025 it introduced new row-based and rack-based CDUs, AC and DC rack CDUs, and technology cooling system manifolds, all sharing a common control platform with its new power distribution units. nVent also exhibited a CDU built to the Project Deschutes specification that Google published through the Open Compute Project, and it launched a services program covering installation, start-up, preventive maintenance and spare parts. Best fit: buyers who want racks, power and liquid cooling from one vendor, or a second source for CDUs.

8. Delta Electronics

Delta Electronics is best known for server power supplies and now sells liquid cooling alongside them. At NVIDIA GTC in March 2026, it showed a 2.4 MW in-row liquid-to-liquid CDU designed for 800 VDC architectures, a scalable 3 MW CDU, in-rack CDUs for NVIDIA MGX and GB300 NVL72 racks, and micro-channel cold plate designs. Shipments of its SideCar liquid-cooled racks and CDUs have grown strongly. Best fit: server and rack makers that want to buy power and liquid cooling as one package.

9. DCX Liquid Cooling Systems

Warsaw-based DCX covers both direct-to-chip and immersion cooling, with CPU and GPU cold plates, rack manifolds, immersion enclosures, modular containers and CDUs. Its enterprise CDUs range from 600 kW to 2.6 MW, and its facility-scale CDUs go much larger: the FDU V2AT2, launched in January 2026, is rated at up to 8.15 MW and designed for the 45°C warm-water supply that NVIDIA specifies for Vera Rubin. DCX emphasizes open standards, multivendor server compatibility and heat reuse. In September 2026, LITEON announced a roughly $176 million investment for about 25% of DCX. Best fit: large 45°C designs, heat reuse projects and multivendor environments.

Cold Plate and Component Manufacturers

The cold plate layer ships the highest volumes in the AI server liquid cooling supply chain and depends most heavily on manufacturing capability. Server OEMs and ODMs usually buy cold plates, manifolds and quick disconnects directly from this layer and integrate them into servers or full racks. For more cold plate makers based in mainland China, see our guide to the top liquid cold plate manufacturers in China.

10. Asia Vital Components (AVC)

Founded in 1991, Taiwan-based Asia Vital Components is one of the largest suppliers of AI server thermal hardware by volume. It offers full liquid cooling modules, including copper microchannel cold plates, CDUs and manifolds, while its subsidiary Fositek supplies quick disconnects. AVC reportedly grew first-quarter 2026 revenue 110% year over year and holds an estimated 40–50% share of cold plates for NVIDIA's GB200 and GB300 systems (analyst estimate). It is adding capacity in Vietnam and has been reported as developing components for NVIDIA's next platforms. For how cold plates have evolved across NVIDIA generations, see our guide to NVIDIA GPU cold plates. Best fit: high-volume cold plates for mainstream AI server platforms.

11. Auras Technology

Auras Technology built its business as a major designer of notebook cooling modules and has pivoted hard into server liquid cooling over the past two years. Its server products include cold plates, vapor chambers, heat exchangers, manifolds and quick disconnects, and it recently earned AMD vapor chamber certification, broadening its reach beyond NVIDIA platforms. First-quarter 2026 revenue rose 94% year over year as liquid cooling took a growing share of its sales, and the company has been adding cold plate and manifold capacity at its factory in Thailand. Best fit: server cold plates, manifolds and quick disconnects for GPU and ASIC platforms.

12. Cooler Master

Best known for PC cooling, Cooler Master has built out a data center liquid cooling line that now includes GPU, CPU and DIMM cold plates, rack manifolds, and both liquid-to-liquid and liquid-to-air CDUs; its liquid-to-liquid CDUs are listed at ratings up to 2,500 kW. In May 2026, it announced liquid cooling solutions for NVIDIA MGX, the modular reference architecture designed for full liquid cooling with 45°C warm-liquid inlet temperatures. It is also reportedly one of the approved cold plate suppliers for NVIDIA's Vera Rubin platform. Best fit: buyers who want cold plates, manifolds and CDUs from a single high-volume supplier.

13. JetCool (Flex)

Founded in 2019 in Littleton, Massachusetts, JetCool makes microconvective cold plates: instead of simply pushing coolant through channels, arrays of fluid jets aim it directly at the chip's hot spots. Its range includes fully sealed cold plates, hot-spot-targeted embedded cooling and turnkey systems, plus a CDU for racks up to 300 kW that scales to row-based configurations above 2 MW. Contract manufacturer Flex acquired JetCool in November 2024, adding production scale behind the technology. Best fit: high-power processors with concentrated hot spots and OEMs that want a cold plate designed around them.

Two-Phase Direct-to-Chip Specialists

Two-phase systems let a dielectric fluid boil inside the cold plate to carry heat away, so there's no water at the chip and each square centimeter can shed more heat. The catch is that every new GPU platform has to be qualified by the chip vendor, which is the steepest barrier to entry in this market. For the system-level differences between single-phase and two-phase, see our direct-to-chip liquid cooling guide; for the cold plate itself, see what is a two-phase cold plate. Beyond the two specialists below, APALTEK's pump-driven two-phase cooling system is also coming soon (see section 1).

14. ZutaCore

ZutaCore builds HyperCool, a waterless, two-phase direct-to-chip system that the company says can roughly halve cooling energy and is designed for processors above 4,000 W per chip. Its portfolio includes OmniTherm cold plates and a family of 1.2 MW and 2 MW end-of-row CDUs. In June 2026, ZutaCore closed a $100 million Series C with strategic backing from Mitsubishi Electric, Carrier Ventures and Samsung Ventures. Best fit: sites that want no water at the chip and very high per-chip power.

15. Accelsius

Founded in 2022 in Austin, Texas, Accelsius makes NeuCool, a two-phase direct-to-chip platform that boils a nonconductive fluid at the chip surface. Alongside NeuCool, it introduced the MR250, its first row-based CDU. In January 2026, Accelsius closed a $65 million Series B led by Johnson Controls, with Legrand joining as a strategic investor. The company claims NeuCool can cut operating costs by about 35% compared with single-phase direct-to-chip cooling (vendor claim), and it positions the platform for retrofitting existing air-cooled racks. Best fit: two-phase pilots and retrofits where facility changes need to stay small.

Immersion Cooling Companies

Immersion cooling submerges entire servers in a dielectric fluid. It suits very high densities, heat reuse and harsh sites, but it changes rack form factors, floor loading and service practices. For the trade-offs against cold plates, see our direct-to-chip vs. immersion cooling comparison.

16. Submer

Founded in Barcelona in 2015 and now with offices in Houston and Taipei, Submer builds single-phase immersion systems. Its flagship SmartPod EVO holds 41U of standard 19-inch gear or 39 OU of OCP ORv3 equipment, dissipates 140 kW or more depending on configuration, and uses 2N pumps with single or dual in-tank CDUs. Pods can be pre-integrated off site, and once facility connections are ready, setup and fluid fill take two to six hours. Submer also offers data center design and build services. Best fit: modular immersion deployments that need to go live quickly.

17. GRC

Based in Austin, Texas, GRC (Green Revolution Cooling) pioneered single-phase immersion cooling in 2009. Its ICEraQ product line ranges from the compact ICEraQ Micro to the ICEraQ Series 10 Quad, which is used in academic supercomputers such as those at the Texas Advanced Computing Center. Because immersion tanks don't need raised floors or tight air management, GRC systems are often used at edge sites, modular deployments and facilities that weren't designed as conventional data halls. Best fit: immersion at edge, research and nonstandard sites.

18. Iceotope

Founded in 2005, Iceotope makes chassis-level precision liquid cooling: dielectric fluid circulates only inside each sealed server chassis, so there's no open immersion tank to manage. The company holds more than 200 granted or pending patents and targets AI, HPC and edge infrastructure. In May 2026, Iceotope raised a $26 million Series B led by Two Seas Capital and Barclays Climate Ventures. Best fit: precision immersion without open tanks, edge sites and heat reuse.

Server OEMs That Ship Liquid-Cooled Racks

Server makers such as Supermicro ship complete liquid-cooled racks, including cold plates, manifolds and CDUs. For data center operators, that's a "the server vendor owns it" buying path. In the supply chain, though, these server makers are often customers of cold plate and CDU manufacturers. Even if you buy from a server OEM, the cold plates and CDUs in the rack still come from a manufacturer in one of the layers above.

How to Shortlist the Best Data Center Liquid Cooling Provider

Start with who you are and what you're buying, then pick the layer:

Whichever type you choose, get clear answers to these questions:

• Validated platforms: Which GPU and CPU platforms have the cold plates and CDUs been validated on, and is there measured thermal resistance and pressure drop data?
• Facility water: What supply temperature and flow rate does the system need, and can your facility deliver them?
• CDU redundancy and lead time: Is N+1 supported, what's the standard lead time, and is there a second source for critical parts?
• Wetted materials and coolant: Which metals and seal materials are in the loop, and are they compatible with your coolant? (See our direct-to-chip coolant guide.)
• Quick disconnect specs: Which quick disconnects are used, and do they match your rack standard?
• Service: Who responds to a leak or failure, and how fast?

If you're requesting quotes from cold plate manufacturers, our guide on how to prepare an RFQ for a custom cold plate walks through what to include. For GPU-specific selection, see how to choose a server GPU cold plate.

FAQ

Who are the biggest data center liquid cooling companies?

By product range and installed base, Vertiv and Schneider Electric (through Motivair) are the two largest. Ecolab became a major player when it closed its acquisition of CoolIT Systems in July 2026, as did Trane with its acquisition of LiquidStack. At the cold plate layer, the highest-volume suppliers are server thermal specialists such as AVC and Auras.

Who are the leading direct-to-chip liquid cooling companies?

The leading direct-to-chip liquid cooling companies include CoolIT (Ecolab), Vertiv, Schneider Electric (Motivair), Boyd, LiquidStack (Trane) and DCX. Cold plate manufacturers include APALTEK, AVC, Auras, Cooler Master and JetCool (Flex). For two-phase direct-to-chip cooling, the specialists are ZutaCore and Accelsius, and APALTEK's two-phase cooling system is coming soon.

Which companies make CDUs for data centers?

Companies that make data center CDUs include APALTEK, Vertiv, Schneider Electric (Motivair), CoolIT, LiquidStack, Boyd, nVent, Delta, DCX, AVC and Cooler Master. Two-phase specialists ZutaCore and Accelsius also make CDUs for their own systems. CDUs come in in-rack and in-row versions, plus facility-scale units, with capacities ranging from a few kilowatts to more than 8 MW.

What is the difference between a liquid cooling system vendor and a component manufacturer?

A system vendor delivers the overall solution from the CDU to facility water, and sometimes chillers and power distribution as well, usually selling to data center operators. A component manufacturer designs and mass-produces specific hardware such as cold plates, manifolds, quick disconnects and CDUs, usually selling to server makers and system integrators. Many large system vendors source their cold plates from component manufacturers.

Can Chinese manufacturers supply data center liquid cooling hardware?

Yes. Mainland China and Taiwan hold much of the world's cold plate, manifold and CDU production capacity and are the main source of AI server liquid cooling hardware. When choosing a supplier, focus on platform validation data, leak testing and quality systems, volume capacity and lead times. APALTEK, for example, designs in Shenzhen and manufactures in Dongguan, supplying cold plates, CDUs, manifolds and single-phase immersion systems, with a two-phase cooling system coming soon. Every product it ships is helium leak-tested.

Next Step: Find the Missing Layer, Then the Right Supplier

Data center liquid cooling isn't a single purchase. It's a chain. A sound order of operations is to pin down rack power and chip platform, confirm your facility water conditions, figure out whether the gap is system integration, CDUs, cold plates or immersion, and then go to suppliers in that layer and ask for validation data on your specific platform.

If you're planning liquid-cooled servers, racks or a liquid-cooled hall, send your chip platform, rack power and facility water conditions to APALTEK's engineering team. We'll evaluate the right combination of cold plates and CDUs and get back to you with a quote within one business day. You can also request cold plate or CDU samples and test data.