Global data center electricity consumption is on track to exceed 1,000 terawatt-hours this year, straining power grids and threatening AI expansion and climate targets. Japanese telecom giant KDDI, working with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, has commercialized liquid immersion cooling for AI data centers. In 2023, KDDI, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and NEC Networks & System Integration Corporation completed demonstration testing at KDDI’s Oyama Network Center, submerging servers in dielectric fluid. The results showed cooling energy consumption fell 94 percent compared with conventional air-cooled systems, and Power Usage Effectiveness dropped to 1.05. The three companies moved from demonstration to commercialization in 2023. Last year, KDDI announced a full-scale AI data center in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture, built with HPE and powered by NVIDIA’s GB200 NVL72 rack-scale systems. The Osaka Sakai Data Center combines air cooling and direct liquid cooling in a hybrid design. KDDI plans to serve startups and enterprises through its WAKONX AI business platform.