Daikin Applied Unveils D60-W Architecture: 60 MW of Cooling for AI Factories on the NVIDIA Platform

Daikin Applied has introduced D60-W Water-Cooled Chillers with Dry Coolers — a reference cooling architecture delivering 60 MW of cooling capacity for artificial intelligence factories, built on the NVIDIA DSX AI Factory Platform with NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72.

Composition and Thermal Loops

D60-W is designed for a 60 MW IT load and consists of six deployable modules. Liquid cooling handles 92% of the thermal load, while air cooling manages the remaining 8%. The design incorporates two temperature loops: a high-temperature loop serves the coolant distribution units (CDU), and a low-temperature loop serves the DDC Solutions S-Series rack containment modules (RCU). RCU modules capture residual heat from racks and are equipped with fire suppression and water circuit protection systems.

Equipment and Operating Modes

The architecture includes Daikin Applied Magnitude WME oil-free centrifugal chillers on magnetic bearings with a cooling capacity of up to 10 MW. The oil-free design eliminates the need for oil heaters, oil pumps, standard oil system maintenance, and startup delays associated with oil. Dry coolers replace evaporative cooling towers and eliminate the need for makeup water; in suitable climatic conditions, they provide the majority of annual cooling capacity, while chillers support the system during the hottest periods.

D60-W operates in three modes depending on ambient conditions: dry cooling with compressors off, hybrid cooling with water economizers and chillers, and fully mechanical cooling. Daikin Applied's iDCM dispatch system coordinates the operation of RCU, CDU, chillers, and dry coolers, managing load distribution, equipment runtime, and mode transitions. The design incorporates RideThrough and RapidRestore technologies for managing power outages and chiller restart after shutdown, as well as system-level redundancy. Cooling capacity is scaled by adding deployable modules.

Karim Chalash, Director of Data Center Solutions at Daikin Applied, noted that an AI factory is a system of systems, where the rack-level cooling solution affects water temperature, flow rate requirements, chiller plant operation, and heat rejection. According to him, D60-W provides design teams with a foundation for working through these interdependencies and developing a cooling architecture that accounts for the facility's operational requirements.

Daikin Applied's CDU and dry cooler for data centers are currently in development; their market launch is planned for the second half of 2027.

Source Refindustry: Daikin Applied Introduces 60 MW Cooling Architecture for AI Factories