AI's thermal challenge seemed impossible: cool ~140kW racks without rebuilding facilities or sacrificing flexibility. Compass Datacenters and Vertiv solved it together, creating the industry's first truly adaptive cooling system.
When the global semiconductor shortage peaked in 2021-2022, disrupting everything from cars to consumer electronics, smart manufacturers didn't tear down their factories and start over. They partnered up. For example, Ford teamed with GlobalFoundries to secure future chip supplies. These companies shared resources and expertise to keep production moving while adapting to new supply chain realities.
Data centers face a similar challenge today with AI workloads. Heat loads are surging. Requirements are changing fast. Yet operators still need systems that work right now while staying flexible for whatever comes next.
That’s exactly what drove Compass Datacenters to bring Vertiv in and help build something new. "We are testing a hybrid cooling unit that we've developed with Vertiv to basically help us with both air cooling and liquid cooling to support AI," says Jakub Pawelczak, VP for Engineering and Design at Compass Datacenters.
The result? A cooling system that handles today's AI demands without locking operators into rigid infrastructure decisions (Video 1).
Video 1. Modular hybrid cooling for scalable data centers | Vertiv™ CoolPhase Flex - The industry’s first packaged system offering liquid and air cooling for modern data centers. It allows subsequent field conversion between air and liquid cooling.
The reality of high-density AI
Here’s where we stand: AI hardware investment is projected to reach $258 billion by 2028, driving the demand for higher-density data center racks. Hyperscale racks are pushing ~140 kilowatts (kW) in some deployments. Traditional air cooling maxes out around 20-30kW per rack. Above 50kW per rack, liquid cooling becomes essential. Air cooling systems cannot remove heat fast enough at these power densities, regardless of airflow volume (Figure 1).
But liquid cooling isn't plug-and-play. Does your facility have liquid distribution? Can you get coolant to the chips that need it most? How do you deploy without taking systems offline? Most liquid cooling retrofits require major infrastructure changes, which can be expensive and disruptive. Worse, they can lock you into specific configurations that may not fit future needs.
Figure 1. Cooling method recommendations by rack density, showing air cooling for traditional IT (3-30kW) and liquid cooling for high-density AI workloads (50kW+), with hybrid solutions bridging the gap. Source: IDC Data Center Vision, March 2025
Building solutions through partnership
Compass Datacenters, one of Inc. Magazine's 5000 fastest growing companies, designs and constructs data centers for the world's largest hyperscalers and cloud providers. The company faced this exact problem with its standardized approach. They needed high-density cooling for AI workloads without overhauling their proven facility designs. "We can't alter our current design, we can't change our current footprint of the building, we can't make the building more complicated," Pawelczak explains. "Everything has to sit within what we currently build today."
The answer came through collaboration with Vertiv. Instead of forcing customers to choose between air and liquid cooling, they built a system that does both. Muhammad Ikramullah, Sr. Mechanical Design SME/Design Manager at Compass, saw the impact firsthand during testing: "The Vertiv™ CoolPhase Flex hybrid system is highly flexible and responsive to customer needs. This technology enables us to switch seamlessly between air and direct-to-chip liquid cooling with no infrastructure or building modification. It's truly the first of its kind."
More than just technology
Vertiv CoolPhase Flex uses refrigerant-based heat rejection in a modular design. Operators can scale capacity as needs change. There are no oversized systems sitting idle, and there is no scrambling to add capacity when AI workloads spike.
But the real breakthrough isn't technical. It's collaborative. Two companies shared the risk and complexity of solving a problem neither could tackle alone.
"There were a million steps, moving parts, and decisions to be made over the 11 months," reflects Michael Murphy, VP for Commissioning and Operations Engineering at Compass Datacenters. "But thanks to this unique partnership, we have a solution that creates incredible advantages for our customers."
Why this matters for AI infrastructure
The Compass-Vertiv partnership proves something important: the companies winning in AI infrastructure aren't just the ones with the best individual products. They're the ones who collaborate effectively to solve real operational challenges.
The business case is straightforward. Flexible cooling allows facilities to support both traditional and AI workloads without disruptive retrofits. This adaptability is becoming the deciding factor for operators to meet rising AI demand and sustain the ecosystems of companies, developers, and regions that depend on them.
Just as car manufacturers turned to partnerships to navigate supply chain disruptions, data center operators must collaborate to address thermal challenges too complex for any single vendor to solve.
Learn how Compass Datacenters and Vertiv developed the Vertiv™ CoolPhase Flex to support high-density AI workloads while adapting to evolving constraints. Watch the full thermal innovation story:
Compass Datacenters and Vertiv collaborate on cooling flexibility for AI
