The Japanese industry is rapidly moving to adopt "liquid cooling" technology instead of traditional air cooling to manage the skyrocketing power consumption and heat generation of data centers driven by the spread of artificial intelligence (AI).

According to the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japanese semiconductor giant Kioxia unveiled liquid-cooling-compatible storage devices for data centers yesterday (September 3).

This method cools heat by flowing a cooling liquid through micro-holes drilled into a metal plate that comes into contact with the semiconductor.

Kioxia has started shipping samples to the United States and plans to begin mass production as early as October.

While traditional data centers have primarily relied on air cooling to cool internal air with air conditioners, they have hit their limits as the heat generation of AI semiconductors has increased dramatically.

The thermal conductivity of liquids such as water is more than 20 times higher than that of air, which not only provides superior cooling performance when cooling directly, but also significantly reduces the cooling power that accounts for 30 to 40 percent of total power consumption in conventional air-cooled data centers.

According to market research firm TrendForce, the proportion of AI semiconductors utilizing liquid cooling is projected to surge from 6 percent in 2023 to 59 percent in 2027. tr

Accordingly, major Japanese companies are also accelerating their technology development and efforts to secure market leadership.

Panasonic Holdings began taking orders for coolant circulation systems in March, and Fuji Electric launched a liquid cooling device in June.

Electronic components maker TDK decided in June to acquire a U.S. venture firm possessing micro-metal processing technology required for liquid cooling for up to 64 billion yen (approx. 560 billion won).

(Photo: Yonhap News)