Gray and Valvoline Team Up to Shape the Future of Liquid-Cooled Data Centers
TECHNOLOGY
Gray and Valvoline Global partner to help data center operators manage rising thermal demands from high-density computing.
As artificial intelligence and high-performance computing push data centers to new limits, traditional cooling methods are struggling to keep up. In response, Gray and Valvoline are joining forces to accelerate the transition to liquid-cooled data centers, a next-generation approach designed to support the growing demands of modern infrastructure.
The collaboration brings together Gray’s expertise in design-build construction with Valvoline’s advanced thermal fluid technology, creating an integrated solution that addresses both the physical and operational challenges of next-gen data centers.
Why Liquid Cooling Is the Future
The rapid rise of AI, cloud computing, and data-intensive workloads is dramatically increasing the heat generated inside data centers. Traditional air-cooling systems are reaching their physical limits, especially as server density continues to climb.
Liquid cooling offers a more efficient alternative.
By transferring heat directly from high-performance components using specialized fluids, liquid cooling enables greater computing density, improved energy efficiency, and reduced operating costs.
In fact, the global market for data center liquid cooling fluids is projected to grow significantly in the coming years, driven by the need for scalable, energy-efficient infrastructure.
A Fully Integrated Approach
What sets the Gray–Valvoline partnership apart is its end-to-end integration.
Rather than treating cooling as a standalone system, the collaboration focuses on designing data centers from the ground up with liquid cooling in mind. This includes everything from facility architecture and engineering to the implementation of advanced cooling technologies such as direct-to-chip and immersion cooling.
This approach allows operators to avoid the inefficiencies and risks associated with retrofitting older facilities, while also accelerating deployment timelines.
Gray’s design-build model simplifies the process by providing a single partner across all phases of development, from concept through construction, helping reduce complexity and improve speed to market.
Meanwhile, Valvoline brings more than a century of expertise in fluid engineering, now applied to the unique challenges of thermal management in high-performance computing environments.
Supporting the Next Generation of Infrastructure
As AI workloads continue to scale, data centers are entering what many call the “gigawatt era,” where performance, density, and sustainability must coexist.
Liquid cooling is emerging as a critical enabler of this shift, offering a way to manage extreme heat loads while reducing energy consumption and environmental impact.
The Gray–Valvoline partnership is designed to help data center operators navigate this transition with confidence, delivering facilities that are not only optimized for today’s demands, but also built for the future.
The Bigger Picture
The infrastructure behind AI is becoming just as important as the algorithms themselves.
Data centers are evolving from static facilities into high-performance ecosystems, where design, engineering, and thermal management must work together seamlessly.
And in this new era, success won’t come from incremental upgrades,
it will come from reimagining the entire system from the ground up.
With Gray and Valvoline combining forces, the path forward for liquid-cooled data centers is becoming clearer, and more scalable, than ever before.