Before the advent of generative artificial intelligence, data centers were kept from overheating by circulating chilled air through the facilities.
“Air cooling was the industry standard because air is abundant and the way it works is simple,” said Brian Haught, director of engineering at Airedale, a cooling solutions company. “Air is literally everywhere.”
But AI’s growing need for power and the server rack densities it requires has pushed data center cooling demands beyond what these conventional systems can handle.
“Air cooling was fine for server racks of 5 to 15 kilowatts,” Haught said. “The new generation of server racks that are being rolled out over…​