S-OIL announced on the 5th that it has signed a business agreement with Sungkyunkwan University’s Supercomputing Center and Global Standard Technology (GST) to demonstrate and strengthen cooperation on immersion cooling technology for AI data centers.

This agreement was arranged to verify the performance and stability of immersion cooling technology in an actual high-performance computing environment, at a time when the spread of artificial intelligence (AI) is driving increases in data centers’ power consumption and server heat generation.

Immersion cooling is a method in which IT equipment such as servers is directly submerged in a dedicated non-conductive cooling oil to dissipate heat. It can remove heat more efficiently than conventional air-based cooling methods and is attracting attention as a technology that can reduce power consumption and cooling load in AI data centers where high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs) are intensively used.

S-OIL, Sungkyunkwan University, and GST will pursue integrated demonstration linking immersion cooling oil, cooling equipment, and an actual high-performance computing operating environment. The demonstration tests will be conducted on high-heat GPU servers installed at Sungkyunkwan University’s Supercomputing Center.

S-OIL will supply its proprietary immersion cooling oil product, “S-OIL e-Cooling Solution,” and be responsible for cooling oil analysis and technical consulting. The Sungkyunkwan University Supercomputing Center will provide the operating environment, including GPU servers and demonstration space. GST will be in charge of operating the immersion cooling equipment and analyzing demonstration data.

The three parties plan to verify the cooling performance, stability, and long-term operational reliability of immersion cooling technology in an actual AI and high-performance computing environment. Based on the demonstration results, they will also review the commercial viability of next-generation data center thermal management solutions.

The Sungkyunkwan University Supercomputing Center holds the largest GPU resources among university supercomputing centers in Korea. It was the first in the country among universities to operate its own supercomputing center and is said to have presented models for building and operating university data centers.

GST is a company that manufactures gas abatement equipment and temperature control equipment used in semiconductor processes. Leveraging its existing semiconductor equipment technologies, it is promoting immersion cooling equipment as a new business and has been continuing related technology cooperation with S-OIL.

This demonstration will be carried out in connection with the Ministry of Science and ICT project “Development of Computing Resource-Intensive Artificial Intelligence Application Technologies,” which was awarded to the Sungkyunkwan University Supercomputing Center. Related demonstrations and research are scheduled to continue until May 2029.

An S-OIL official stated, “By conducting demonstrations that leverage Korea’s top-tier supercomputing operating environment, the company will enhance the competitiveness of immersion cooling technology and broaden its cooperation base in the AI infrastructure field.”

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