Could GRC’s immersion cooling solutions be the answer to the data center energy dilemma?
Most people are now aware of the damaging impact data centers have on the environment, but with demand for technology continuously increasing, the industry needs solutions. Striving to change the way data centers are designed, built, and operated to reduce their cost, complexity, and environmental impact, GRC is the company behind the sector’s first immersion cooling technologies. Immersion cooling is far more energy efficient, as it cools servers using liquid rather than conventional air-cooling techniques.
“I am sure people have heard about the huge investments being made in AI data centers, but few understand the massive amount of power they require,” opens
Peter Poulin, CEO. “A recent report from McKinsey projects that AI data centers could consume up to 100 GW of power globally, but this amount of power is simply not available in today’s world. The biggest constraint to AI data center builds is therefore access to power, and that’s where our immersion solution shines, by reducing power consumption by up to 40 percent.
“In a typical data center, for every ten units of power used to run services, another six units of power are required to cool them with air. By deploying immersion, those same servers can be cooled with less than one unit of power, providing customers with two options: capture the operational cost savings of a significantly lower electric bill, or reallocate that power saving to additional computing, effectively achieving more productivity using the same power envelope. Also, unlike air cooling, because the servers are immersed in the coolant, they aren’t exposed to airborne particulates, humidity, and oxidation, which improves the long-term reliability of the servers.
“In recent years, technology markets have increasingly addressed the ever-growing carbon footprint of data centers, with large hyperscale operators like Google, Meta, and AWS making some form of carbon reduction pledge,” he adds. “Due to the cost of sustainable technologies, business leaders have historically had to choose whether to invest in more sustainable technologies at a higher cost and risk lower profitability or optimize shareholder value with conventional technologies. However, immersion eliminates that trade off, as it’s a more sustainable technology that reduces both CapEx and OpEx while also reducing carbon footprint. There is also the benefit of reducing waste by extending the life of the servers and preventing them from going to landfill.”
Narrating the story of GRC’s evolution, Peter continues: “We think about the company’s growth in four phases: product validation, product optimization, building a foundation for scale, and finally, growth at scale. Product validation meant deploying our new technology to customers like the NSA, Orange Telecom, and Intel. This successfully demonstrated the value of our proposition and gave us license to enter the second phase, product optimization. In this phase we sold products to early adopters, including universities, cryptocurrency miners, and oil and gas services, which then actively engaged in recommending product enhancements and helping us further optimize the solution. We then focused on building a foundation for scale, including our Flex Manufacturing Network, securing ISO 9001 certification, more robust information management systems, and a world-wide service and support capability. With that foundation in place, we are currently in the final phase, growth at scale, where we’re focused on mainstream adoption of our technology.”
GRC’s products are composed of three basic building blocks: the coolant filled tanks into which the servers are immersed, a coolant distribution unit (CDU) that circulates the coolant to capture and reject heat from the servers out of the building, and an operational control system that also provides predictive failure alerting to avoid any unscheduled downtime. “These three components come in a range of sizes and shapes that are optimized for specific uses cases,” Peter says. “The system could be as small as something you might deploy in a data closet in a branch bank or as large as systems that would be deployed in an AI data center the size of two football fields. The breadth of our product portfolio enables us to address applications from small, edge computing requirements to very large, centralized cloud computing applications.
“However, cooling is only one component of a data center, and we have built an entire ecosystem of strategic partners including some of the most trusted brands in the data center and telecoms industries. We partner with server providers, such as a BCA with Dell, an Engineering Alliance with Cisco, and a pre-certified bundle with SuperMicro, as well as Schnider Electric for data center infrastructure and several coolant providers including Shell, bp Castrol, HF Sinclair, and ENEOS to name a few. We’ve also signed a Business Collaboration Agreement (BCA) with Samsung C&T to develop reference designs for immersion cooled data centers to accelerate mainstream adoption.”
GRC’s technology clearly provides a more sustainable solution for operators to cool data centers, and as demand for both data centers and sustainability goals grows simultaneously, the company is well positioned to meet market needs. “2026 will see GRC continue to strengthen our relationships across our ecosystem of trusted partners, align our Flex Manufacturing Network with US and international tariff policies, and maintain ongoing product innovation,” Peter shares.
“There are two possible future scenarios: either GRC is acquired by a corporation within the data center cooling sector to add our patented technology to their portfolio, or GRC becomes a much larger company with a more diverse liquid cooling product range and an extensive service and software offering. The latter includes building our own factories that integrate our Flex Manufacturing Network, opening regional headquarters with local engineering teams, and potentially licensing our technology to other companies.”
Peter concludes: “Regardless of what happens further afield, one thing is clear: from integrated information systems and certified processes to sustaining long-term relationships and providing worldwide service with local support, we’ve developed a strong foundation for operational scale moving forwards.”