At the Open Compute Project Global Summit 2026 (October 12–15), Valeo will present, with OVH Cloud, the validation status of its breakthrough aluminium heat exchanger technology for data centre thermal management. This technology is applicable for the rear door cooling modules of rack or fan wall in the core space of data centres (white space). It represents a paradigm shift in the industry.
With over two years of dedicated development in the sector, Valeo is demonstrating its industrial capability and readiness to scale production. Leveraging decades of automotive thermal management, heat exchangers and corrosion know-how, Valeo develops solutions aimed at supporting the AI industry’s exponential scaling needs.
Pascale Herman, Data centre & BESS Vice President at Valeo, said: “Presenting our ongoing work at OCP 2026 represents an important step in our journey within the data centre ecosystem. Over the past two years, we have made significant progress in evaluating how aluminium liquid cooling can meet the rigorous reliability and performance standards required by modern high-density facilities. By combining these early testing metrics with our decades of automotive thermal management expertise, we are working to develop scalable thermal solutions to support the industry’s evolving infrastructure needs responsibly and effectively.”
A validated breakthrough for data centers cooling
As artificial intelligence (AI) workloads push rack densities to new heights, aluminum heat exchangers are being evaluated to provide a powerful, lightweight, more efficient, and scalable alternative to traditional copper hardware. Valeo’s aluminum solutions deliver a 38% increase in cooling capacity and 65% in power density versus traditional copper solutions, while simultaneously reducing fan electrical consumption by 25%. These validation results establish a clear technological breakthrough, directly optimizing Carbon Usage Effectiveness (CUE) and Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), ideal for retrofitting existing or for new racks.
Automotive-grade reliability: pushing the boundaries of endurance
To evaluate long-term feasibility, and directly address industry concerns regarding aluminum corrosion, Valeo has implemented a comprehensive, accelerated long-run testing framework to simulate long-term reliability and OVH Cloud has been running real time and conditions tests for several months. Testing on Valeo’s specific coating has already successfully reached the equivalent of more than 10-years operating life, fully aligning with the standard infrastructure lifespan of the data center industry. Valeo is currently pushing tests up to 15 years ensuring the material unconditionally meets the stringent, long-term lifespan expectations of data center operators. This ongoing research aims to establish a clear pathway toward production-grade aluminum infrastructure for next-generation data centers.
A comprehensive liquid cooling vision addressing the data center industry evolution
While the aluminum exchanger takes center stage at OCP 2026, it is part of a broader liquid cooling ecosystem engineered to challenge traditional data center thermal limits and address the industry’s rapid evolution. Valeo’s technology portfolio also includes Direct-to-Chip (DLC) systems (both Single-Phase and Two-Phase) for high-density racks, as well as Zero-Water Immersion Units for Micro-Edge compute applications.
By applying decades of automotive thermal expertise, stringent quality standards, and a vast global manufacturing footprint in all regions, Valeo brings a new industrial perspective to data center cooling. As accelerating AI demand reshapes digital infrastructure, Valeo combines high-volume production scale with cutting-edge innovation to power the digital transition.