SK Telecom verifies AI server liquid immersion cooling tech

South Korea's SK Telecom Co. announced on Tuesday that it has successfully verified the liquid immersion cooling technology, a next-generation Internet data center heat management method.

Liquid immersion cooling involves placing servers in a special cooling fluid that does not conduct electricity to manage heat.

The company explained that this technique eliminates the need for server fans, reduces power consumption, and allows for stable maintenance of the overall system temperature without concerns about humidity, dust, and noise.

SK Telecom built a system at its Incheon headquarters in collaboration with Texas-based Green Revolution Cooling, SK Enmove, and servers from various manufacturers. The equipment was tested and operated for four months starting in June this year.

Through this, the company saw a reduction in cooling power by 93% compared to conventional air cooling, saving over 10% of server power and achieving a 37% reduction in overall power consumption.

SK Telecom plans to establish a dedicated data center for its artificial intelligence (AI) services at its Incheon headquarters in November this year and aims to fully implement the immersion cooling system at the Incheon headquarters next year.

Additionally, it plans to actively enter the immersion cooling business by combining data center monitoring solutions with SK Enmove's heat management business.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the estimated global power consumption of data centers last year was between 240-340 TWh, accounting for 42-60% of the annual power consumption in South Korea. The increasing adoption of graphics processing unit (GPU) servers due to the AI fever has brought attention to server cooling issues.

Write to Ji-Eun Jeong at jeong@hankyung.com