Liquid Cooling Vendors

Coolant distribution units (CDUs) for data centers

A coolant distribution unit (CDU) is the box between the building’s water and the liquid that touches the chips: a heat exchanger, redundant pumps, filters and controls that hold the cold plate loop at a set supply temperature. Shipping CDUs run from 15 kW (Boyd RAA15, liquid-to-air) to 8,150 kW (DCX FDU V2AT2). The 1–3 MW in-row unit is where the market sits: for 17 of the 22 vendors that publish a largest CDU, it falls between 1 and 3 MW. Vertiv CDU 2300 at 2,300 kW, Nidec NIR 2.5 at 2,000 kW and CoolIT CHx3000 at 3,000 kW are typical.

26 vendorsChecked

LevelGPU platforms (vendor-stated)Coolant
DCX Liquid Cooling Systems60038,1502In-rack, In-row, FacilityNVIDIA GB200 NVL72; NVIDIA GB300 NVL72; NVIDIA Vera RubinWG · DE-1φ—Europe2026-11-09
Carrier1,30035,0003In-row, Facility—WG—North America2026-11-09
Supermicro10025,0001Server, In-rack, In-rowNVIDIA GB200 NVL72; NVIDIA HGX B300; AMD Instinct MI300X/MI325X; AMD Instinct MI300AWG—North America2026-11-09
CoolIT Systems8043,0001Server, In-rack, In-row, FacilityNVIDIA Vera Rubin (CHx3000); AMD Helios (CHx3000); NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 (CHx2000: up to twelve 120 kW racks)WGEcolabNorth America2026-11-09
Cooler Master2532,5001Server, In-rack, In-row—WG—Asia-Pacific2026-11-09
Motivair by Schneider Electric10512,5001Server, In-rack, In-row, FacilityNVIDIA (CDUs stated as certified for NVIDIA's latest hardware); NVIDIA NVL144 (HDU sized 1:1)WGSchneider ElectricNorth America2026-11-09
Boyd Thermal (Eaton)1512,3003Server, In-rack, In-row—WGEatonEurope2026-11-09
Vertiv7012,3001In-rack, In-row—WG—North America2026-11-09
Airedale by Modine40022,1602In-row, Facility—WGModineEurope2026-11-09
Nidec2,00012,0001In-rack, In-rowNVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72 (NIR 2.5)WG—Asia-Pacific2026-11-09
nVent—2,0001In-rack, In-row—WG—Europe2026-11-09
STULZ34512,0002In-row—WG—Europe2026-11-09
ZutaCore2012,0001Server, In-rack, In-rowNVIDIA GB200 Grace Blackwell (ZutaCore release); AMD, Intel and NVIDIA CPUs/GPUs (general support)DE-2φ—North America2026-11-09
JetCool (Flex)30011,8001Server, In-rack, In-row—WGFlexNorth America2026-11-09
HPE (Hewlett Packard Enterprise)7541,6003Server, In-rack, In-row—WG—North America2026-11-09
Chilldyne30021,5001Server, In-rack, In-row—WG—North America2026-11-09
Delta Electronics50021,5001In-rack, In-rowNVIDIA MGX rack GB200/GB300WG—Asia-Pacific2026-11-09
Rittal15031,5002In-rack, In-row—WGFriedhelm Loh GroupEurope2026-11-09
LiquidStack1,35011,3501In-row, FacilityNVIDIA Vera Rubin (GigaModular)WGTrane TechnologiesNorth America2026-11-09
Johnson Controls (Silent-Aire)50011,0501In-row, Facility—WGJohnson ControlsEurope2026-11-09
Accelsius15032502Server, In-rack, In-rowNVIDIA H100; NVIDIA H200; NVIDIA B200; NVIDIA Grace CPU; AMD MI325X; AMD MI355XDE-2φInnventureNorth America2026-11-09
AVC (Asia Vital Components)——Server, In-row—WG—Asia-Pacific2026-11-09
Dell Technologies (PowerCool)——Server, In-rackNVIDIA GB300 NVL72 (PowerEdge XE9712); NVIDIA B200 (PowerEdge XE9680L)WG—North America2026-11-09
EAS Companies (Environmental Air Systems)——Facility——Comfort Systems USANorth America2026-11-09
Envicool——Server, In-rack, In-row, Facility—WG · DE-1φ—Asia-Pacific2026-11-09
Kehua Data——In-row, Facility—WG—Asia-Pacific2026-11-09
Coolant
WGWater-glycol
DE-1φSingle-phase dielectric
DE-2φTwo-phase dielectric or refrigerant

How to size and compare CDUs

How ratings are read

Liquid-to-liquid or liquid-to-air

A liquid-to-liquid CDU hands the heat to facility water through a plate heat exchanger. That is where the megawatts are. A liquid-to-air CDU, often called a sidecar, dumps the heat into room air with its own fans and coil, so it needs no chilled-water piping: Vertiv’s CoolChip CDU 70 handles 70 kW in-row and Boyd’s RAA15 15 kW. Pick a sidecar for a pilot rack, and a liquid-to-liquid unit for a hall.

In-rack, in-row or facility

In-rack CDUs sit at the bottom of one rack and serve it alone: Supermicro’s runs up to 250 kW on 45 °C facility water and JetCool’s SmartSense up to 300 kW. In-row units feed a row of racks through a secondary manifold. Carrier’s QuantumLeap and Supermicro’s in-row CDU reach 5,000 kW, and DCX’s facility FDU 8,150 kW.

Read the rating point

Every kW rating holds at a stated approach temperature difference (ATD): the gap between facility water in and coolant out. Rittal’s SK 3343.200 is 1,000 kW at 4 K and 1,500 kW at 6 K, so one unit carries two honest numbers. CoolIT rates the CHx3000 at 3 °C ATD, Vertiv its in-row units at 4 °C and Silent-Aire at 5.2 °C with 25% propylene glycol. The spec notes in each vendor page give the conditions; compare at the same ATD before you shortlist.