For four decades, air cooling was the data center’s unsung workhorse. GPUs changed the equation. NVIDIA’s GB200 NVL72 rack pulls 120–130kW total — air cooling, optimized for 8–12kW racks, has no viable answer for that kind of density.

The Numbers

• Average rack density: 8kW → 17kW in 2 years, projected to reach 30kW by 2027
• Liquid cooling market: approaching $3B in 2025, forecast $7B by 2029
• Only 45% of data centers now run purely on air cooling (down from 48% in 2024)
• 59% of operators plan to implement liquid cooling within 5 years
• NVIDIA Vera Rubin (H2 2026): supports 45°C warm-water cooling — no mechanical chillers needed

The DCPacket Angle

DCPacket’s Digital Electricity® platform was purpose-built for this load profile. Where traditional AC power distribution becomes inefficient and dangerous at AI rack densities, DE® delivers safe, precise, digitally-controlled power at the point of load — eliminating the inefficiencies that compound as rack density climbs. This isn’t a retrofit. It’s the architecture the industry is converging on.