UBS: Asia Hardware Insights — Liquid Cooling Feedback Post Launch/CES
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UBS published a liquid cooling report following NVIDIA's CES keynote, addressing market concerns and clarifying technology transitions. NVIDIA confirmed its architecture will shift from Blackwell's hybrid design to 100% liquid cooling in Rubin, cooling the GPU, CPU, switch ASIC, NIC, and DPU. This increases the number of cold plates required per rack, though cold plate ASPs may decline by approximately 50%. UBS believes higher volume and more complex gold-plated designs will offset these pricing pressures.
Regarding chillers, UBS clarified that rack-level liquid cooling utilizing an L2A sidecar with fans does not require them at the rack level, limiting disruption to Delta. Microchannel lid (MCL) testing is progressing well, with potential deployment in overclocked VR200 SKUs by late 2026 or early 2027, driven by increasing packaging density and warpage issues.
Individual stocks demonstrated mixed quarterly results. AVC posted NT$13.9 billion in December revenue and NT$47.9 billion for 4Q, beating expectations. Auras reported NT$2.8 billion in December and NT$7.6 billion for 4Q, surpassing guidance. Conversely, Jentech missed expectations with NT$1.87 billion in December. UBS favors AVC and Jentech while maintaining a positive view on Auras.