Opening with a "one-word" limit-up! External major positive news completely triggers the liquid cooling concept!

It’s time for liquid cooling!

On the morning of February 12, the concept of liquid-cooled servers collectively gained strength. Chuanrun Co., Ltd. and Dayuan Pump Industry opened with a straight-limit rise, Yimikang briefly hit the 20% limit-up, while Fangsheng Co., Kexin Innovation, Yingweike, Shenling Environment, and Chunzhong Technology followed suit.

Last night, NVIDIA’s liquid cooling supplier Vertiv (VETiK Technologies) reported outstanding earnings. The company achieved earnings per share of $1.36 in Q4 last year, with sales of $2.9 billion, a 23% year-over-year increase, surpassing market expectations. Meanwhile, order growth was very strong, with a 252% YoY increase and a 117% quarter-over-quarter increase during the reporting period.

Liquid cooling is exploding

Overnight, driven by Vertiv’s better-than-expected Q4 FY2025 earnings and strong performance guidance, the stock surged 24%, hitting a new all-time high. This performance completely ignited the A-share liquid cooling concept stocks. Chuanrun Co., Ltd. and Dayuan Pump Industry opened with a straight-limit increase.

In Q4 2025, Vertiv reported earnings per share of $1.36 and sales of $2.9 billion, a 23% increase YoY, exceeding Wall Street’s forecast of $1.29 per share. Additionally, the company’s order volume also grew very strongly.

Regarding performance guidance, Vertiv expects FY2026 earnings per share to be between $5.97 and $6.07, with sales around $13.5 billion. Currently, Wall Street forecasts FY2026 earnings per share of $4.85 and sales of $11.7 billion. CEO Giordano Albertazzi stated, “Our Q4 performance last year demonstrated Vertiv’s leading position in the increasingly complex and competitive data center market. Looking ahead to 2026, we expect this growth momentum to continue.”

In 2026, liquid cooling technology is accelerating from the “pilot phase” toward “mass production.” TrendForce predicts that AI data center liquid cooling penetration will jump from 14% in 2024 to 40% in 2026, with the global liquid cooling market reaching approximately $15 billion (about 105 billion yuan). The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2026 to 2028 is about 30%.

Who’s next?

Amid the investment demand and price increases driven by AI, recent capital markets have played out various exciting scenarios. Yesterday was fiberglass, today is liquid cooling. So, who’s next? Some analysts suggest energy storage might be the next.

Galaxy Securities states that the breakthrough in single-chip power consumption exceeding 2300W (such as NVIDIA’s Rubin series) is forcing upgrades in cooling, making liquid cooling a standard for high-density AI servers. As a key support component for stable operation of AIDC, energy storage systems, along with liquid cooling, HVDC, BBU, and other new power supply and distribution components, form the core modules of highly reliable energy infrastructure.

Since 2025, driven by exploding demand for energy storage and policies against internal competition, the battery industry chain has shown a trend of rising prices. Especially with the unexpected demand for energy storage terminals, industry chain profitability is showing real recovery. North American tech giants are significantly increasing capital expenditure in 2026, with Amazon, Google, and Meta planning investments of $200 billion, $175–185 billion, and $115–135 billion respectively, with year-over-year increases of 50%, 91–102%, and 59–87%. AI data center (AIDC) construction is accelerating.

High-density computing power in AIDC creates explosive electricity demand. Coupled with aging power grids and localized power shortages, “photovoltaic-storage direct connection” and AIDC power and storage integration are becoming essential solutions. From 2025 to 2030, North American AIDC backup power demand is expected to grow at a CAGR of 84%, and under the green power direct connection logic, the CAGR is also about 44%. The strategic position of energy storage systems in AI infrastructure continues to rise.

Recent developments in the energy storage industry show that on February 9, the State Power Investment Corporation announced the candidates for the 7GWh energy storage cell equipment centralized procurement, with bid prices around 0.325–0.355 yuan/Wh. Downstream demand remains strong, and the bidding prices for cell procurement are recovering. Huatai Securities points out that energy storage capacity and electricity price policies can provide more stable revenue expectations for energy storage stations. Under certain scenarios, with 2/10/20-year capacity electricity price guarantees, project IRRs can reach 5.8%, 7.9%, and 9.2% respectively. Business model optimization is expected to encourage central and state-owned enterprises to increase investment in energy storage stations. Currently, lithium carbonate prices are smoothly transmitting upward, and the “internal competition” mode may shift. Leading integrators and cell manufacturers are expected to have stronger premium advantages.

(Source: Securities Times)