Data Center Cooling and Power: What‘s the $M per MW for different types of equipment

Research evidence excerpt

Data Center Cooling and Power: What‘s the $M per MW for different types of equipment

17 July 2026

U.S. Multi Industry & Electrical Equipment

Data Center Cooling and Power: What's the $M per MW for

different types of equipment

As AI infrastructure scales, investors increasingly need to understand which suppliers Varun Govindaraj

+1 917 344 8543 are positioned to capture the spend associated with next-generation data centers (on a

varun.govindaraj@bernsteinsg.com $M/MW basis). In this note, we share our estimates of cooling and power content for

key pieces of equipment. To validate our numbers, we combined primary and secondary

Chad Dillard research, including discussions with experts, reviews of company websites and product

+1 917 344 8469

chad.dillard@bernsteinsg.com catalogs, and detailed component-level mapping across cooling and power systems.

Data Center Cooling Equipment: The rapid increase in AI rack densities is forcing a Alasdair Leslie

+44 20 7762 4952 transition away from traditional air-cooled architectures towards direct liquid cooling. In

alasdair.leslie@bernsteinsg.com an air-cooled data center, heat generated by servers is removed through a combination of

rear-door heat exchangers (RDHx), computer room air handlers (CRAHs), chillers and heat-

Miguel Marques, CFA rejection equipment (dry coolers or cooling towers). In a liquid-cooled architecture, heat is +1 917 344 8432

miguel.marques@bernsteinsg.com removed much closer to the chip through cold plates, manifolds and coolant distribution

units (CDUs), substantially improving cooling efficiency for high-density AI workloads. While

Om Kela chillers remain the central engine of the cooling plant in both architectures, the equipment