As AI factories multiply around the world, data center cooling has become one of the most critical infrastructure challenges of our time. GS Group’s establishment of a dedicated AI data center subsidiary reflects the growing global momentum around AI infrastructure investment. At the heart of this challenge lies a question every data center operator must answer: how to manage the heat generated by high-density AI servers. Air cooling alone can no longer meet these demands — making liquid cooling an essential part of modern AI infrastructure. Kixx’s liquid cooling solutions are designed for this new reality, drawing on decades of expertise in lubrication and fluid thermal management.

Key Takeaways

• As AI factories expand rapidly around the world, data center cooling has become a critical decision in AI infrastructure. High-density AI environments generate enormous amounts of heat and power demand, making effective data center thermal management an important measure of infrastructure competitiveness.
• GS Group has established a dedicated subsidiary, GS AI Infra, to advance AI data centers as a future business. This reflects the accelerating global race to secure AI infrastructure capabilities.
• Kixx draws on GS Caltex’s accumulated expertise in lubrication and fluid thermal management to deliver liquid cooling solutions built for high-density AI server environments.

AI data centers are expanding rapidly, making thermal management an increasingly critical component of AI infrastructure.

“Ultimately, our customers, our partners, don’t want to buy computers. They want to build AI factories,” said NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang at GTC Taipei 2026. “Our partners are at infrastructure scale — power generators, cooling systems, the grid providers.” This race to build AI factories is well underway globally, and Korea is no exception. GS Group — the Korean conglomerate behind GS Caltex, with business interests spanning energy, service, and construction — has established a dedicated AI data center subsidiary to enter this space. But building the facility is only the beginning. The real challenge is keeping it cool.

What Is an AI Factory?

An AI factory is a specialized data center designed to build and operate AI at scale.

While traditional data centers have focused on storing and processing data, AI factories go a step further — providing the infrastructure that enables AI models to continuously generate outputs such as responses, analyses, predictions, and images.

To make this possible, AI factories require powerful AI processors and servers, stable power supply, high-speed networking, storage systems, and cooling infrastructure. In other words, an AI factory is not simply a space packed with servers — it is a high-performance infrastructure designed to keep AI running reliably.

The AI Data Center Boom — and GS Group’s Move Into the Market 

Companies around the world are expected to spend approximately $765 billion in 2026 on the infrastructure needed to build and run AI, including computing equipment, data centers, and power. GS Group has established a dedicated subsidiary, GS AI Infra, to advance AI data centers as a future business. This step reflects the growing momentum among companies globally to secure AI infrastructure capabilities.

As AI data centers become more widespread, a critical challenge comes into focus: how to ensure stable power supply and manage the heat generated by servers efficiently.

Why AI Data Centers Are Pushing Air Cooling to Its Limit

AI factories rely on far more high-performance AI processors than traditional data centers. According to McKinsey, rack power requirements are moving far beyond conventional levels — from around 8kW per rack to as high as 120kW for advanced AI systems.

Air cooling has long been the standard approach for keeping data centers cool, and it remains widely used today. However, air-based cooling systems are generally considered effective for up to 50kW per rack. As AI servers become more powerful and rack densities continue to rise, managing heat with air alone is becoming increasingly challenging in high-density AI data center environments.

This is where liquid cooling comes in. Unlike air, which circulates around servers without direct contact, liquid cooling removes heat directly from the source — and does so far more efficiently. Liquids can transfer heat up to 1,000 times more effectively than air, making liquid cooling an essential solution for AI data centers where rack power demands have outpaced what air alone can handle.

Take a deeper look at the difference between air cooling and liquid cooling:

→ [Next-Gen Lubes #2: Building Tomorrow’s Digital Infrastructure with Kixx’s Liquid Cooling Solutions]

Compared to traditional data centers, high-density AI data centers require more sophisticated thermal management.

The Role of GS Caltex – Kixx

Kixx is GS Caltex’s lubricant brand, with decades of experience in lubrication and fluid thermal management. Kixx commercialized a liquid cooling solution for data centers in 2023, bringing this technical foundation directly to the AI data center cooling market.

In AI data centers, it’s not just about which cooling method you use. Choosing the right cooling fluid for your servers and equipment matters just as much. The fluid needs to transfer heat effectively, remain stable over long periods of use, and have no adverse effect on equipment.

To meet these demands, Kixx has been expanding its data center liquid cooling solutions, building on real-world validation with the AI data centers of major telecom and IT companies. Kixx has also collaborated with global server manufacturer Supermicro to conduct cooling system testing for AI servers.

Kixx offers a liquid cooling solution portfolio designed to address the diverse thermal management needs of AI data centers. This includes Kixx DLC Fluid PG25, a direct liquid cooling fluid designed for chip-level heat removal, and Kixx Immersion Fluid S, a specially formulated fluid for immersion cooling systems where servers are fully submerged for maximum thermal efficiency.
→ [Kixx DLC Fluid PG25]
→ [Kixx Immersion Fluid S]

Looking Ahead

As the age of AI factories takes hold, data centers are under growing pressure to deliver both greater computing power and more reliable operating conditions. Cooling is no longer a secondary consideration — it is a defining factor in the performance and stability of AI infrastructure. Building on decades of accumulated expertise, Kixx is responding to the thermal management demands of high-density AI data centers with solutions designed for this new era.