Listed companies are betting on the liquid cooling track, and the tens of billions of market in this field may have already kicked off.
Amid the capital frenzy, are the current liquid cooling concept stocks just a hype bubble or the start of a long - term strategic investment? Looking ahead to next year, how large is the specific market space for liquid cooling?
On December 11, 2025, Lens Technology Co., Ltd. (300433.SZ), the leading company in the "Apple supply chain" with a total market value of up to 150 billion yuan, announced that it plans to purchase 100% equity of PMG International Co., LTD. (hereinafter referred to as "Peimeigao Company"). Through this, the company will quickly acquire the mature technologies and customer certifications for the server cabinet business of specific domestic and foreign customers, as well as the advanced liquid - cooling system integration capabilities.
Reporters from Economic Observer found that in addition to Lens Technology, in the past month, many companies including Zhongshi Technology (300684.SZ), Yidong Electronics (301123.SZ), and Chunqiu Electronics (603890.SH) have all taken actions to layout in the liquid - cooling field.
In the secondary market, liquid - cooling concept stocks have been highly sought after by market funds since the beginning of this year. Wind data shows that as of the close on December 12, the liquid - cooling server index has risen significantly by 49.66% this year, and the stock prices of many constituent stocks have doubled.
Amid the capital frenzy, are the current liquid - cooling concept stocks just a hype bubble or the start of a long - term strategic investment? Looking ahead to next year, how large is the specific market space for liquid cooling?
Targeting North American Customers
As one of the leading providers of one - stop precision manufacturing solutions for the entire industrial chain of new intelligent terminals in the industry, Lens Technology's business covers structural parts, functional modules, and complete machine assembly of products such as smartphones, computers, and humanoid robots. It is a well - known leading target of consumer electronics concept stocks in the market.
As early as in the investor communication in August 2024, Lens Technology predicted that the development of AI would drive the upgrade of computing power heat dissipation. Therefore, it put forward a development strategy of "pre - exploring the computing power fields such as servers through the innovation research institute and taking AI servers, especially the liquid - cooling direction, as the key exploration area".
Based on the judgment that "the market space for liquid - cooling modules and connectors is huge", Lens Technology began to plan its liquid - cooling related business, focusing on AI server cabinets and the liquid - cooling direction, and recruited a large number of key technical positions such as server quality engineers, radiator development engineers, and liquid - cooling project managers for overseas large - scale customers.
Since then, the concept of "liquid cooling" has become one of the focuses of attention for Lens Technology's investors and has appeared multiple times in the investor communication activities held by the company. This acquisition of Peimeigao Company by Lens Technology is undoubtedly an important step for it to enter the liquid - cooling field.
The announcement shows that Peimeigao Company, registered in Samoa, holds 95.12% equity of Yuanshi Technology (Zhejiang) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yuanshi Technology"), and its actual controller is LEU, SONG - SHOW. Lens Technology signed an equity acquisition intention agreement with LEU, SONG - SHOW in Hong Kong, China on December 10, planning to purchase 100% equity of Peimeigao Company he owns in cash and other legal ways.
LEU, SONG - SHOW promised to guarantee that Peimeigao Company and Yuanshi Technology already possess the elements required for the server cabinet business (including but not limited to racks, slides, trays, and other components) of specific domestic and foreign customers, such as supplier qualifications, technologies and intellectual property rights, R & D and business teams, production capabilities, production equipment, and sites. And these elements and the required qualifications, teams, and business capabilities will remain valid and have no adverse changes for at least three years after the completion of the proposed transaction to ensure the normal operation of the target company's above - mentioned business after the completion of the proposed transaction.
However, through the Tianyancha platform, the reporter found that Pinda Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Pinda Technology"), the second - largest shareholder of Yuanshi Technology, is a Hong Kong, China company in a "dissolved" state. Will this flaw lay a mine for this acquisition?
In this regard, relevant staff from the secretary's office of Lens Technology said in a telephone consultation with the reporter that this information (referring to the Tianyancha information) should be wrong because Pinda Technology is not registered in Hong Kong, China and is not dissolved. Currently, Pinda Technology is on the supplier list of a large North American customer.
He further explained that as a supplier in the field of liquid cooling, Peimeigao Company has customers all over the world, and its main asset is Yuanshi Technology under it. Yuanshi Technology's main business is related to server chassis structural parts and liquid - cooling systems, while Pinda Technology focuses on the liquid - cooling field. "Through the acquisition, we have got on the supplier list of a large North American customer. So, we have great development potential in the liquid - cooling field in the future."
Then, which company does this "large North American customer" refer to? In this regard, the above - mentioned staff said that it is not convenient to disclose the specific name of the customer at present.
Lens Technology also pointed out in the announcement that through this acquisition, the company will quickly acquire the mature technologies and customer certifications for the server cabinet business (including but not limited to racks, slides, trays, and other components) of specific domestic and foreign customers, as well as the advanced liquid - cooling heat dissipation system integration capabilities, which will strongly complement and highly synergize with the company's strong precision structural parts manufacturing and "material - module - complete machine" vertical integration capabilities, significantly enhancing the core competitiveness of AI computing power hardware solutions, and adding strong impetus for the company to explore the new track of AI computing power infrastructure and accelerate the transformation into a global AI hardware innovation platform.
Capital Rushing to Enter the Market
"Liquid - cooling technology is the only way to solve the heat dissipation pressure of data centers." On December 5, Zhou Ershuang, the chief analyst of Soochow Securities, repeated this view several times in his research report. According to him, liquid cooling is a heat dissipation technology that uses liquid to take away the heat of heat - generating devices. It replaces traditional air cooling with cooling liquid, making full use of the high thermal conductivity and high heat capacity characteristics of liquid to replace air as the heat dissipation medium. Compared with the traditional air - cooling heat dissipation technology, liquid - cooling technology has the advantages of low energy consumption, high heat dissipation, and low noise. It is suitable for application scenarios that require improved computing power, energy efficiency, and deployment density, and has become a new type of refrigeration solution.
As an emerging technology in the AI industry chain, liquid cooling is highly favored by capital. The reporter noticed that recently, many listed companies have announced acquisitions or plans to acquire target companies involved in liquid - cooling businesses to accelerate the layout of AI computing power infrastructure and the liquid - cooling field. In addition to Lens Technology, companies such as Zhongshi Technology (300684.SZ), Yidong Electronics (301123.SZ), and Chunqiu Electronics (603890.SH) have also taken actions.
As a mainstream enterprise in the domestic heat dissipation industry, Zhongshi Technology mainly provided advanced thermal management functional solutions based on synthetic graphite materials, thermal interface materials, and two - phase flow products before. However, since this year, Zhongshi Technology has regarded server liquid - cooling heat dissipation as an important expansion direction for its new business, and has gradually increased resource investment in product R & D, customer development, and production capacity construction in the liquid - cooling heat dissipation field.
On December 4, Zhongshi Technology announced that its wholly - owned subsidiary, Beijing Zhongshi Weiye Technology Yixing Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yixing Zhongshi"), plans to use its own funds of 35.7 million yuan to increase capital and acquire 51% equity of Zhongshi Xunleng Heat Dissipation Technology (Dongguan) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhongshi Xunleng") and include it in the company's consolidated statements.
Zhongshi Technology said that Zhongshi Xunleng was founded by a team with more than 15 years of experience in the heat dissipation industry and focuses on liquid - cooling heat dissipation solutions. This acquisition will help the company further deepen its industry layout in the heat dissipation module field, improve the liquid - cooling business ecosystem, and at the same time, extend the liquid - cooling professional capabilities of the Zhongshi Xunleng team to the company's existing large - scale customer channels, achieving effective synergy and optimized integration of customer resources.
Yidong Electronics announced on November 27 that it plans to acquire 51% equity of Shenzhen Guanding Metal Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shenzhen Guanding") for 61.2 million yuan. Information shows that Shenzhen Guanding, established in 2012, is a comprehensive solution provider focusing on the structure of AI computing power liquid - cooling heat dissipation products and has become a core supplier for leading customers in the liquid - cooling heat dissipation field.
In addition, Chunqiu Electronics announced on November 26 that the offeror established in Singapore through its wholly - owned subsidiary plans to acquire all the shares of Asetek, a global leader in liquid - cooling technology, in cash, and thereby achieve a strategic transformation from electronic manufacturing to "electronics + liquid - cooling solutions" and build a new business growth pole.
Behind the above - mentioned series of equity acquisition actions reflects the industry's consensus on the importance of liquid - cooling technology in AI computing power infrastructure. Relevant listed companies are trying to seize or enhance their core competitiveness in the liquid - cooling track by integrating technologies, customer resources, and manufacturing capabilities.
Trillion - yuan Market Opens
In the secondary market, liquid - cooling concept stocks have been highly sought after by funds since the beginning of this year. Wind data shows that as of the close on December 12, the liquid - cooling server index has risen significantly by 49.66% this year, and the stock prices of many constituent stocks have doubled. Among them, Siquan New Materials (301489.SZ), Invic Technology (002837.SZ), and Kechuang Xinyuan (300731.SZ) ranked in the top three with increases of 286.21%, 155.36%, and 123.97% respectively. The increase of Zhongshi Technology, which just announced the acquisition of Zhongshi Xunleng, also reached as high as 99.95%.
Amid the capital frenzy, is the current liquid - cooling concept just a hype of bubbles or the start of a long - term strategic investment? How large is the specific market space for liquid cooling next year? Undoubtedly, these are the concerns of investors.
In this regard, the staff from the secretary's office of Zhongshi Technology said in a telephone consultation with the reporter that the prospect of the liquid - cooling market is indeed huge. Judging from the current situation, its market space should be more than 100 billion yuan in scale. "We mainly produce components related to cold plates, and the market scale is probably about 30 - 40 billion yuan."
Through calculations, Zhou Ershuang also reached the conclusion that "the market scale of computing power liquid cooling will exceed the 100 - billion - yuan mark in 2026". Among them, the scale of the ASIC (Application - Specific Integrated Circuit) liquid - cooling system is expected to reach 35.3 billion yuan in 2026, and the scale of the NVIDIA liquid - cooling system will be as high as 69.7 billion yuan.
"With the upgrade and iteration of chips, the power density surges, and the corresponding value of liquid cooling will also increase rapidly. Taking the GB300 and GB200 servers (a series of AI server products launched by NVIDIA) as an example, according to our calculations, the value of the rack liquid - cooling module is expected to increase by more than 20%. In the future, with the upgrade of the rubin architecture (the next - generation AI chip architecture developed by NVIDIA), the value of liquid cooling is expected to be further enhanced." Zhou Ershuang said.
A research report recently released by Head Leopard Research Institute also pointed out that with the surging demand for computing power in large - model training and inference, traditional air cooling can no longer meet the heat dissipation requirements of high - density computing clusters. Liquid - cooling technology has fully penetrated from edge deployments to core computer rooms and has become a rigid demand for AIDC (AI Data Center) construction. It is expected that the penetration rate of liquid cooling in AIDC will reach 40% in 2025, becoming the most certain technological inflection point at the infrastructure layer, directly driving the performance explosions of refrigeration equipment, temperature - control materials, liquid - cooling servers, and system integrators.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Economic Observer", author: Zou Yongqin. Republished by 36Kr with authorization.