[Digital Today reporter Seok Dae-geon] LG Electronics is stepping up its push into the global market with liquid-cooling solutions for AI data centres. LG Electronics said on Sunday it obtained final quality certification from Nvidia for its 600-kW coolant distribution unit, or CDU, becoming the first South Korean company to do so.

A CDU circulates coolant through cold plates attached to GPUs and CPUs in AI servers, absorbing heat from the chips. Heat output per server rack is rising as AI data centres use more high-bandwidth memory and high-performance GPUs. Demand is growing for systems that combine liquid cooling with existing air-cooling systems.

LG Electronics' CDU provides temperature precision control within plus or minus 0.25 degrees Celsius. It features virtual sensors and leak-detection functions, and links with an integrated data-centre control system. The company said Nvidia's contingency operation tests confirmed cooling was maintained without interruption by switching to backup equipment even if abnormalities occurred in a pump or CDU group.

LG Electronics said it will use the certification as a starting point and sequentially expand Nvidia certification across its full lineup of large-capacity CDUs, including 1 MW, 2.5 MW and 4 MW models. With the global AI data-centre market expected to grow by about 26 percent a year to about $133.5 billion in 2034, the company said it expects more opportunities to work with large hyperscalers and win projects.

LG Electronics is expanding its portfolio with a total "chip-to-chiller" solution covering the full range of data-centre thermal management, from chillers that produce coolant to CDUs and cold plates that directly absorb heat from chips. It is also pursuing CDU supply for LG CNS' AI data-centre design, construction and operations business, and for modular AI data-centre projects.

Lee Jae-sung (이재성), head of LG Electronics' ES Business Division and president, said, "With the explosive growth of the AI data-centre market, the importance of highly reliable liquid-cooling solutions is greater than ever." He added, "Based on LG Electronics' unrivalled in-house cooling technology and our 'ONE LG' integrated infrastructure solution capabilities that bring together group-wide strengths, we will lead the global market as a total solution provider in the AI data-centre field."