Cooling a Server from "NVIDIA" Costs $49,000

SadaNews - Reports have revealed that cooling NVIDIA's high-performance systems has become astonishingly expensive, as the cost of cooling a single Blackwell Ultra NVL72 server is nearly equivalent to the price of a Tesla Model Y.

According to a report from Morgan Stanley, the liquid cooling system inside the GB300 NVL72 server costs about $49,860, and the cost is expected to rise to $55,710 in the next generation Vera Rubin NVL144, representing a 17% increase.

Cooling Costs Rise with Each Generation

This rise is attributed to the new Rubin GPU processors operating at a thermal power of up to 1800 watts per unit, along with the latest generation of NVSwitch 6.0 units, according to a report published by TechRadar, which was reviewed by Al-Arabiya Business.

The system depends on what is called "tray-level cooling," as each compute tray requires more capable cooling plates to absorb heat.

The cost of cooling each tray is estimated at around $2,660, and with 18 trays in the full system, the total cost of cooling the processors alone reaches approximately $47,880.

Switch trays are relatively less expensive, costing no more than $870 each, but their impact is limited compared to the substantial rise in processing costs.

Massive Heat Demands New Solutions

Each Blackwell Ultra GPU unit consumes 1400 watts, while the Grace CPU processor requires 300 watts, and the memory consumes an additional 200 watts per socket.

As processing capabilities continue to escalate, precision cooling systems have become a necessity rather than an option.

Leaks suggest that NVIDIA is planning to launch a new generation of Rubin Ultra processors with a thermal design power that could reach 3600 watts per unit, which will force them to develop more advanced cooling plates and possibly entirely new cooling technologies.

Future Servers: Higher Performance and Higher Costs

The company is also preparing to launch the NVL576 "Kyber" system, a liquid-cooled server that includes 144 graphics processing units, which will outperform the Vera Rubin NVL144 in terms of performance—but will also carry an unprecedented cooling bill.

Data center experts believe that these figures indicate a new wave of high thermal costs, as the ability to cool becomes a critical factor in determining the future of artificial intelligence and supercomputing operations.