- HPE was in Barcelona this month talking up its liquid cooling prowess
- Despite acquiring Cray and its liquid cooling tech in 2019, HPE is a smaller player in today's market
- Analysts said competitors have a slightly different technology focus and target customers, which is giving them a leg up
When you think of liquid cooling, there are a few names that spring to mind. CoolIT, Vertiv, Schneider Electric, maybe even Accelsius, JetCool or LiquidStack. But there’s one name that seemingly should be at the top of the list that isn’t: HPE.
HPE was talking up its liquid cooling prowess at MWC Barcelona earlier this month, citing the advantage it has over competitors thanks to its Cray assets. And by rights, these assets should give it a leading edge.
HPE acquired supercomputing company Cray for $1.3 billion in 2019, a move that gave it access to Cray’s proven direct liquid cooling technology years before it was clear the entire market would shift in that direction. But while it does indeed offer liquid cooling for its server products today, it’s not a market share leader.
Why is HPE not a market leader in liquid cooling?
Analysts told Fierce there are a few reasons that HPE is not a market leader in liquid cooling. Gartner VP Analyst Gaurav Gupta said that HPE’s focus on serving its own hardware is one of them.
Larger players like Schneider and Vertiv “focus on CDUs/manifolds/secondary loops and are agnostic of the OEM they partner with,” he said. But HPE, as well as Dell and Lenovo, have liquid cooling solutions “focused on cold plates and internal tubing. Their solution is optimized to their hardware.”
“So, HPE is a player, but it’s not a universal liquid cooling player offering solutions to others,” Gupta explained.
Dell’Oro Group Research Director Alex Cordovil added that the route to market also matters. He explained that solutions for supercomputers “don’t easily transfer to hyperscale data centers,” which is where the sales volume for liquid cooling lies today. HPE is focused more on the enterprise, which is lagging in liquid cooling adoption.
Indeed, Dell'Oro Group has forecast the data center liquid cooling market, which was worth around $3 billion in 2025, will grow to around $7 billion by 2029.
“So, it's less that they lack the technology and more that their commercial focus doesn't align with where the volume is,” Cordovil concluded.