What happened
Daikin Applied announced the D60-W, a 60MW cooling reference architecture designed for AI factories using NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72 systems. The design integrates liquid and air cooling across six deployable units, utilizing oil-free magnetic bearing chillers and dry coolers to eliminate cooling-tower water usage.
Daikin Applied, a Minneapolis-based company, has introduced a new cooling reference architecture named D60-W Water-Cooled Chillers with Dry Coolers. This design is specifically tailored for AI factories built on the NVIDIA DSX AI Factory Platform with NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72 systems. The architecture supports a 60MW IT load split across six deployable units, with 92% of the load handled by liquid cooling and the remaining 8% by air cooling.
The system utilizes two loops: a high-temperature liquid loop for coolant distribution units (CDUs) and a low-temperature loop for air-cooling rack containment units (RCUs). Racks are primarily liquid-cooled via CDUs, while residual heat is captured by S-Series RCUs from DDC Solutions, a company Daikin Applied acquired in 2025. The design includes built-in fire suppression and water-loop protection, allowing operators to run air-cooled, liquid-cooled, and hybrid side by side.
A key of the D60-W is its use of Daikin Applied’s oil-free Magnitude WME magnetic bearing centrifugal chillers, which have capacities of up to 10MW. These chillers eliminate the need for oil lubrication, reducing standby energy use and maintenance. In suitable climates, dry coolers handle the cooling load for most of the year, with chillers supporting operation on the hottest days. This setup requires no cooling-tower make-up water, supporting low water usage effectiveness (WUE).
The architecture includes a single control layer, Daikin Applied’s iDCM supervisory system, which coordinates the RCUs, CDUs, chillers, and dry coolers as one plant. It manages load sharing, balances equipment operating hours, and controls transitions between dry, hybrid, and full mechanical cooling modes. Daikin Applied notes that its own CDU and data centre dry cooler are still in development, with availability targeted for the second half of 2027.
Source details: datacentremagazine.com
Why it matters
This development addresses the critical infrastructure bottleneck of thermal management in high-density AI data centers. By providing a standardized, integrated cooling blueprint, Daikin Applied aims to reduce integration complexity and accelerate the deployment of AI capacity. The shift to dry cooling and oil-free chillers also highlights the industry's growing focus on water conservation and operational efficiency in AI infrastructure.
Cooling infrastructure is a central challenge in AI factories, which are designed to turn energy into output as efficiently as possible. Daikin Applied identifies cooling as a growing factor in how quickly AI capacity comes online and how reliably it runs. By providing a single partner for cooling from rack to ambient, the company aims to reduce integration complexity and help customers move more quickly into project engineering.
The shift to oil-free chillers and dry cooling addresses specific operational and environmental concerns. Traditional large-scale chillers rely on oil lubrication, which requires oil management and periodic run cycles even during standby. The oil-free design eliminates these requirements, reducing standby energy use and allowing cooling to recover quickly after shutdown, thereby protecting GPU availability.
The use of dry coolers instead of evaporative cooling towers supports low water usage effectiveness (WUE), a critical consideration for data centers in water-scarce regions. This approach aligns with broader industry trends toward sustainable AI infrastructure and addresses environmental concerns associated with data center operations.
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What to watch next
Monitor the availability of Daikin Applied's proprietary CDU and dry cooler components, targeted for the second half of 2027. Watch for early adopters of the D60-W architecture and any reported performance metrics or energy savings from initial deployments.
The availability of Daikin Applied’s proprietary CDU and data centre dry cooler is targeted for the second half of 2027. Until then, the architecture relies on existing components from partners like DDC Solutions. Monitoring the development and deployment of these proprietary components will be key to assessing the full impact of the D60-W architecture.
Early adopters of the D60-W architecture may provide insights into its practical performance, including energy savings, water usage, and operational reliability. Independent verification of these metrics will be important for understanding the real-world benefits of the design.
The integration of the D60-W architecture with other AI infrastructure components, such as power distribution and network systems, will also be a factor in its overall effectiveness. Daikin Applied’s iDCM supervisory layer aims to provide centralized visibility and control, but its performance in complex, multi-vendor environments will need to be evaluated.