Nam Hyun-woo has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2013, mostly covering business and politics. He currently belongs to the Business Desk where he covers topics such as emerging tech, AI, ICT and Korea's chaebol community. Prior to joining the team, he was the paper's correspondent for the presidential office of Korea during the Yoon Suk Yeol and Moon Jae-in administrations.
HD Hyundai Oilbank teams up with SNU for data center immersion cooling
HD Hyundai Oilbank’s Jung Tae-oh, left, head of the Lubricants Business Division, poses with Kim Young-oh, center, dean of Seoul National University College of Engineering, and Kim Soo-yong, CEO of Databean, during a signing ceremony at the university in Seoul, Wednesday. Courtesy of HD Hyundai Oilbank.
By Nam Hyun-woo
HD Hyundai Oilbank will partner with Seoul National University (SNU) to introduce an immersion cooling system for artificial intelligence (AI) data centers within the university, the lubricant maker said Wednesday.
HD Hyundai Oilbank, SNU and immersion cooling system operator Databean signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on their AI infrastructure immersion cooling validation project.
The project is aimed at addressing difficulties for the server room of SNU's AI research lab due to excessive fan noise and high temperatures of the lab’s air-cooling system.
Under the MOU, the server room will begin applying and testing an immersion cooling system in early 2026. HD Hyundai Oilbank will supply the immersion cooling fluid required for testing, while also providing technical support and maintenance services.
SNU will offer the data center and graphics processing unit (GPU) servers needed to evaluate the cooling performance, and Databean will install its immersion cooling system, SmartBox, and analyze operational data.
Immersion cooling systems are a next-generation heat management solution that submerges servers or energy storage systems in a non-conductive liquid, cutting power consumption more effectively than other methods. The technology is gaining global attention from hyperscalers because conventional air-cooling systems have reached their limits just as the rapid progress of AI services requires greater computing power.
The industry is now at the stage of validating the technology’s feasibility in real-world applications, particularly on compatibility checks between servers and immersion fluids under actual use conditions.
With the project, HD Hyundai Oilbank will be the first in Korea to verify the stability of immersion cooling in an AI research environment.
“The project will demonstrate the viability of applying immersion cooling systems in small-scale server infrastructure such as an AI lab or smart factory,” an HD Hyundai Oilbank official said. “We will continue to expand our validation projects to lay grounds for our entry into the large-scale data center cooling market.
HD Hyundai Oilbank launched its immersion cooling fluid brand X Teer E-Cooling Fluid last year, and began supplying immersion cooling fluid for a domestic hyperscaler, Naver Cloud.