As data centers scale to support AI, cloud computing and increasingly complex workloads, many facilities are reaching the limits of traditional air cooling. Power densities are rising, infrastructure demands are intensifying and sustainability expectations continue to grow. These pressures are reshaping how operators think about thermal management and accelerating interest in liquid cooling as a viable path forward. While adoption is still in its early stages, momentum is building quickly—setting the stage for a major shift across both existing facilities and new data center designs.
An Industry in Transition
Only 19% of data centers currently use liquid cooling but 36% plan to adopt it within the next 1–2 years, according to the AFCOM State of the Data Center Report 2025. A third of operators (34%) say their current cooling systems are inadequate and 21% are actively looking for better approaches.
In the US, the shift is moving even faster. Bluefield Research projects that 50% of data centers will use some form of liquid cooling by 2030—up from 28% in 2023.
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Source: Bluefield Research
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Challenges of Liquid Cooling Retrofits
Retrofitting liquid cooling into a facility not designed for it can be highly complex. Immersion systems, for example, add significant weight to the baths that hold submerged equipment, often requiring reinforcement of the floor structure beneath. New plumbing may also need to pass through walls and floors that were built to be watertight, leaving no simple points of entry.
If there is not sufficient spare capacity, retrofit projects can also be hindered by the requirement to keep the facility running throughout the changes and not risk outages for the end user. There could even be legal and administrative issues to navigate if the changes affect the terms of existing leases, user licenses or power purchase agreements.
These factors help explain why retrofitting is viewed as the biggest barrier to adoption. When asked what holds them back from implementing liquid cooling, 47% of data center professionals cited integration complexity—surpassing cost (41%), lack of technical expertise (31%) and uncertainty about long-term benefits (26%).
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Source: AFCOM State of the Data Center Report 2025
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Hybrid Cooling Strategies and Prefabricated Solutions
Thankfully, transitioning to liquid cooling does not have to be an all-or-nothing decision. Hybrid approaches give operators the flexibility to use both air and liquid cooling, even if liquid cooling is ultimately the long-term goal.
Implementing water-to-rack cooling with the help of rear-door heat exchangers (RDHx) can be less disruptive than opting for full immersion or direct-to-chip cooling, while offering many similar benefits.
Another valuable technological development is the availability of prefabricated cooling modules, which are easier to install and integrate than custom-designed solutions and may be perceived as being lower risk. A recent survey conducted by AFCOM showed that 83% of data center operators indicated they are interested in exploring the use of this type of unit.
One factor that is crucial to the success of any retrofit project is the amount of space available. While liquid cooling does not necessarily require more room than air cooling, having additional space makes phased installation simpler and allows new systems to operate alongside existing ones when needed. Prefabricated units can be especially helpful where space is limited.
Why New Data Center Builds Choose Liquid Cooling
Despite these challenges, the shift to liquid cooling is becoming increasingly inevitable as workloads grow and AI accelerates demand for higher rack densities. Data center power requirements continue to climb. According to Vertiv, standard deployments have historically operated at around 10–15 kW per rack, but AI hardware—especially clusters of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs)—draws far more power and generates significantly more heat. In many AI deployments, racks now draw 40 kilowatts or more. With high-performance computing (HPC), power densities can even reach 100kW per rack.
Older facilities simply cannot support these loads without major upgrades.
This is why more than 50% of new hyperscale data centers are adopting liquid cooling from the outset. Although these systems come with a higher upfront cost, Datacenters.com suggests the ROI on this additional investment can be as little as 2-4 years when deployed at large scale.
It’s not surprising that big players such as Google, Meta, Microsoft and Alibaba are investing in liquid cooling to support AI workloads and reduce energy consumption. These tech giants have led the way in implementing immersion and DTC cooling at hyperscale and the next few years are likely to see smaller centers follow suit.
The Future of Data Center Cooling
Whether retrofitting or building from scratch, liquid cooling is the future. The question isn’t if—it’s how fast you can get there. Digital tools such as flow metering and water quality monitoring help you adopt a proactive approach to maintenance of your system, alerting you to any emerging issues with low or excessive flow, deterioration in water quality or a drop in efficiency.
