Accelsius’s direct-to-chip liquid cooling systems enable high-performance computing for data centers. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Accelsius CEO Josh Claman about the company.
Josh Claman’s Background
What is your background? Claman said:
“I have spent the last 30 years of my career tracking the evolution of data centers and innovative technologies.”
“Before joining Accelsius in 2022, I served as the CEO of Rimidi, after working as the Chief Business Officer at Stratasys. In past roles with Dell, NCR, AT&T, Dell, I had the privilege to oversee transitions to ground breaking technologies, and I ultimately came back to the data center industry after all these years. The reason is simple: new advanced chip technologies have brought unseen challenges to the industry around density and cooling and there is extreme urgency to implement solutions that mitigate these problems.”
Formation Of Accelsius
How did the idea for the company come together? Claman shared:
“The industry was beginning to recognize that air had reached its limits for data center cooling. CPU and GPU wattages were growing at a rate never expected and new approaches were needed. At the same time, Innventure, which funds innovative and sustainable technology companies, identified IP from Nokia Bell Labs that delivered a two-phase, direct-to-chip solution that could revolutionize the market. Innventure purchased the IP and then brought me in to build a company and commercialize the technology into an enterprise-class solution designed for the mission critical application with an emphasis on serviceability.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Claman reflected:
“April’s Data Center World conference was an incredible realization of how far we’ve come and how eager the market is for a technology that solves the cooling conundrum, without uncomfortable compromise (baths for immersion or water for single-phase). We were invited to speak on 4 different panels and our booth was trafficked with people who’d heard of us and were eager to begin a relationship. The team had worked hard for over a year to develop a solution that we’re proud to bring to the market and it was a great moment to finally deliver to such an eager audience.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Claman explained:
“Accelsius NeuCool platform is a direct-to-chip liquid cooling system in data centers, that cools chips within racks without water or the need for traditional air-cooling techniques. We champion this groundbreaking cooling solution that addresses rising heat densities and increasing computing power amid the rise of AI.”
Challenges Faced
What challenges have Claman and the team faced in building the company? Claman acknowledged:
“The supply chain crisis impacted this sector particularly hard, and this was something we were keenly aware of as we built the company in 2022. We’ve prioritized a multi-layer AVL that will protect us in the future. We’ve also committed to having 85% of our Tier 1 vendors be NAM based, which enables a much more responsive supply chain. And lastly, we have a lot of our manufacturing and assembly done in-house, which gives us more control and flexibility.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Claman cited:
“Since opening our corporate headquarters in Austin, TX in August 2023, we have achieved significant growth and momentum and have seen a 100% increase in Austin-based headcount, growing from 20 to 57 employees. In December, we launched the NeuCool Kickstart Program, which enabled customers to have an exclusive field trial of the NeuCool platform. Shortly after that, we grew our customer pipeline by X% and officially launched our platform 4 months later.”
Customer Success Stories
When asking Claman about the company’s customer success stories, he highlighted:
“We have several customers signed for initial rack orders. A noteworthy one is Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC). Accelsius will support Vista, a new leading-edge, high-performance supercomputer to manage TACC’s artificial intelligence workloads. Vista uses NVIDIA GH100 Grace Hopper Superchips with TDPs over 1000 watts per socket or chip.”
“As per standard confidentiality, we will release additional customer profiles over the balance of this year.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Claman assessed:
“OMDIA reported that the liquid cooling market surpassed $1 billion in 2023 and will continue to grow fast with liquid cooling representing one-third of the overall data center thermal management opportunity in 2027. It is expected to have a significant share of that market- and with NVIDIA and Intel public declarations that two-phase will be needed to cool chips just a few years from now, we expect that portion to continue to grow.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Claman affirmed:
“Liquid cooling is a growing technology to address rising heat density in data centers – which traditional air cooling can no longer control. Liquid cooling offers 3,000 times the heat absorption of air, but many products require a data center retrofit or an entirely new facility. NeuCool fits into traditional racks, without the need for special mounting. The NeuCool cold plates are placed directly on the chip, resulting in direct and continued cooling.”
“Aside from our innovative technique to cool chips, the NeuCool architecture is heavily engineered to prevent leakage, subsiding the popular fear that many people have when adopting liquid cooling technologies.”
“Finally, Accelsius NeuCool technology cools 1500+ watts of power per socket – which is unmatched among competitors. For example, NVIDIA H100 chips use 700W; Accelsius is well-poised to cool these powerful chips in data centers as AI advancements continue to rise.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future company goals? Claman concluded:
“Our goal is to provide a solution that not only solves a technical barrier to widespread AI adoption, but to help data centers reduce energy by up to 50% as compared to traditional air cooling. We’re all aware of the huge amount of electricity used by data centers – and if we can help reduce or temper that in any way, we feel like we’re not only innovating but we’re also doing it in a thoughtful way for our planet.”
