Liquid Cooling in Data Centers: What comes after single phase DTC? With CoolIT‘s 15kW cold plate, does anything even need to?

Research evidence excerpt

Liquid Cooling in Data Centers: What comes after single phase DTC? With CoolIT‘s 15kW cold plate, does anything even need to?

16 July 2026

U.S. Multi Industry & Electrical Equipment

Liquid Cooling in Data Centers: What comes after single phase

DTC? With CoolIT's 15kW cold plate, does anything even need to?

When you hear the term “liquid cooling” today, most people are referring to single phase Varun Govindaraj

+1 917 344 8543 direct to chip (DTC). It’s called single phase because the coolant stays in a liquid state (and

varun.govindaraj@bernsteinsg.com doesn’t undergo a phase change to vapor). The broader market seems to believe we are

coming up on a theoretical limit on future generations of GPUs being cooled with single

Chad Dillard phase (especially as you start to reach TDPs around Rubin Ultra which are above ~2.5kW).

+1 917 344 8469

chad.dillard@bernsteinsg.com Two technologies are seen as successors to single-phase DTC; (i) two-phase DTC and (ii)

direct to die. These have been explained in more detail below.

Alasdair Leslie

+44 20 7762 4952 Two-phase DTC: The more likely to see commercial viability in the next ~12- 18 months

alasdair.leslie@bernsteinsg.com around the same time as Rubin Ultra. Undergoes a phase change (evaporation) of the

coolant in a cold plate enabling it to capture more heat vs. single phase DTC operating at

Miguel Marques, CFA similar conditions. Most major players are likely investing in the space, either directly (e.g., +1 917 344 8432

miguel.marques@bernsteinsg.com VRT, CoolIT) or through partnerships (e.g., JCI with Accelsius, Carrier with ZutaCore, etc.).

Still has real engineering challenges to solve for (backward flow, refrigerant choice, etc.) so

Om Kela it is by no means a done deal.

+44 20 7550 2192

om.kela@bernsteinsg.com