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Liquid cooling data center startup Accelsius raised a $24 million Series A, the company tells Axios exclusively.

Why it matters: Data center operators are increasingly turning to liquid-cooling tech to reduce the energy use of power-hungry AI data centers. 

The big picture: Most data center operators cool down servers using big air cooling systems, and a bit less than half of the energy used by an average data center goes into cooling the servers.  

Liquid cooling tech emerged in recent years as a more energy efficient way to cool servers. The technology uses liquid at the chip or server level to siphon off heat from the machines 

Now industry watchers, including researchers at the Cleantech Group, expect the AI computing boom will kickstart the liquid-cooling market.

How it works: There are a variety of ways to cool down servers with liquid. 

Austin-based Accelsius' system cools chips directly by pumping a liquid refrigerant across a cold plate that sits on top of the chips. As the liquid flows across the chips, it boils, then vaporizes, in a two-phase process.

Other companies have designed "immersion" systems, where basically entire servers are dunked in tubs filled with liquid. 

Accelsius says its tech, called NeuCool, reduces energy use by 50%. The Cleantech Group says liquid cooling can be 300 times more energy efficient than air cooling.

Zoom in: Innventure, which founded Accelsius in June 2022, managed the fundraising. 

Innventure acquires or licenses corporate R&D and turns that IP into startups.

State of play: Investors have been moving to back liquid-cooling startups. 

JetCool, which also does direct-to-chip liquid cooling, raised a $17 million Series A last year led by Bosch Ventures and including In-Q-Tel.

LiquidStack, which sells direct-to-chip and immersion, raised a $20 million Series B round this September, led by Tiger Global. 

Submer, which makes immersion cooling, raised $55.5 million last month led by M&G.

The intrigue: Big AI players like Nvidia are partnering with liquid cooling vendors like CoolIt Systems, Schneider Electric, and Vertiv.

What's next: Accelsius is beginning to work with contract manufacturers, because some of its clients "have a scale that's just beyond where we're going to be in a year or two," says Accelsius CEO Josh Claman.

The bottom line: Expect deployments of liquid-cooled data centers to grow significantly as AI computing gets more power intensive and a wave of AI data centers are built. 

Exclusive: Accelsius raises $24M for liquid-cooled data centers

Liquid cooling is expected to boom with AI data centers.

Illustration of a glowing lightning bolt symbol filled with binary code.

Artificial intelligence

Liquid cooling data center startup Accelsius raised a $24 million Series A, the company tells Axios exclusively.Why it matters: Data center operators are increasingly turning to liquid-cooling tech to reduce the energy use of power-hungry AI data centers.

Exclusive: Accelsius raises $24M for liquid-cooled data centers

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