India, Oct. 16 -- As of 2025, single-phase direct-to-chip (D2C) liquid cooling remains the dominant solution for high-end GPU thermal management. However, with thermal design power (TDP) continuing to rise, the industry is approaching the limits of what single-phase cooling can handle. Two-phase D2C cooling is expected to enter large-scale deployment around 2027.

IDTechEx has conducted extensive interviews across the data center value chain, including chip manufacturers, cold plate suppliers, and system integrators. While opinions differ regarding the exact timeline, there is a broad consensus that single-phase D2C begins to struggle at around 1500W TDP, with 2000W seen as its upper limit.

Historical TDP trends for GPUs, analyzed by IDT...