Why AI Computers Are Hooked Up to Pipes - Video

NVIDIA's newest AI racks (Vera Rubin NVL72) started shipping in September 2026, and they're liquid cooled: hooked up to pipes.

AI chips pack so much heat into so little space that fans alone can't keep up. So cool liquid flows through metal "cold plates" sitting right on the chips, soaks up the heat, and carries it out of the building to cooling towers.

NVIDIA says these racks can be cooled with water as warm as 45°C (113°F), hotter than a hot tub (U.S. safety guidance says hot tubs should never go above 104°F). Engineers note many sites will still keep chillers as backup.

Cooling still takes water. The Pacific Institute (Sept 2026) found a typical large U.S. data center withdraws about 121,000 gallons a day, roughly 6.7 times a large office building.

Sources: Supermicro "Now Shipping NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72 Racks" (Sept 23, 2026); Jensen Huang at CES (Jan 2026), via Facilities Dive and Fierce Network; Pacific Institute issue brief "How Much Water Do Data Centers Use?" (Sept 2026); U.S. CPSC hot tub guidance.

Visuals are 3D illustrations, not real products or sites. Narration is an AI voice.

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Music: "Beauty Flow" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 4.0.

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