Nvidia announces 100MW of AI data centres in Taiwan

Nvidia will build 100MW of AI data centres in Taiwan. Here's what Jensen Huang said, and the liquid cooling solutions I spotted today at Computex.

Taiwan's AI supercomputer was first announced by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang at his GTC keynote on Monday, followed by a press event with Foxconn today.

AI data centre in Taiwan

Nvidia will work with Foxconn Taiwan, the Taiwanese government, and TSMC to build AI data centres in Taiwan.

"I'm very happy to announce we're also building AI for Taiwan... we're going to build the first giant AI supercomputer here for the AI infrastructure and the AI ecosystem of Taiwan." - Jensen.

More details came out today:

• Will be 100MW when completed.
• Built in phases due to power situation.
• Data centres planned in the city of Kaohsiung.
• Others will be in cities across Taiwan.

Liquid-cooled for AI

I've written much about liquid cooling, from explaining how it works, why it's the future and the reason for its slow adoption.

But make no mistake: Liquid cooling isn't optional for AI data centres the kind that Nvidia and the hyperscalers are building.

Asus offers both GPU servers that are air-cooled and liquid cooled. And nothing underscores the future of liquid cooling than two Asus GB300 GPU servers placed side-by-side in the photo at the top.

(Left) Air-cooled: 10U.
(Right) Liquid-cooled: 4U

Of course, air-cooling is still needed, as seen in this Asus liquid-cooled GB200 NVL72 server.

The plumbing for liquid cooling

A key component for direct-to-chip liquid cooling is the CDU, or Coolant Distribution Unit. Here, I spotted a 1.5MW CDU by Delta. Apparently, 2-3MW versions are in development.

This unit occupies the space of 2 racks but has 4 pumps (3+1 config) for redundancy. And oh, it has built-in PH sensors on both primary and secondary loops to ensure quality of water and PG25 respectively, are on par.

Immersion cooling

Finally, there is immersion cooling, which sees entire servers completely immersed in dielectric liquid to keep them cool. I stopped by Submer, and saw their 28U tank capable of cooling 70kW of load.

I'll talk more about liquid cooling tomorrow, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, here's what I wrote about liquid cooling's slow adoption.