Who makes air-cooled heatsinks for AI data centers
The finned aluminum or copper heatsinks and vapor chambers that spread and dissipate heat from chips that rely on airflow (4.13) rather than a liquid cold plate.
Heatsinks and vapor chambers sit directly on chips that aren't covered by a liquid cold plate (layer 5.01) — memory, networking silicon, VRMs, and, in air-cooled server configurations, the CPU or GPU itself — spreading heat across a larger surface area for fans (4.13) to carry away. As rack-scale AI systems move the highest-power chips to liquid cooling, this part's role narrows to the components liquid cooling doesn't reach and to the segment of the market still running air-cooled GPU servers rather than rack-scale liquid systems. That narrowing role doesn't mean the part disappears — it means the design problem shifts toward smaller, more thermally demanding heatsinks squeezed into a chassis that also has to route liquid-cooling plumbing, rather than large heatsinks free to use as much airflow and space as needed. For investors, this tier's growth is more tied to the air-cooled and hybrid segment of the server market than to the highest-end liquid-cooled racks, so its trajectory diverges somewhat from the rest of this layer as liquid cooling adoption increases.
AI delta: As the highest-power chips in a rack move to liquid cooling, heatsinks and vapor chambers narrow to the components liquid cooling doesn't reach, shrinking in scope even as they get squeezed into more crowded, liquid-plumbed chassis.
Companies on this part (9)
| Company | Role | Ownership | Ticker | Price | 1d | Confidence | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Auras | manufacturer | public | 3324.TWO | 1360 TWD | +0.4% | inferred | |
| AVC | manufacturer | public | 3017.TW | 3145 TWD | -2.8% | inferred | |
| Chaun-Choung CCI | manufacturer | public | 6230.TW | 108 TWD | -3.6% | inferred | |
| Delta Electronics | manufacturer | public | 2308.TW | 1560 TWD | -3.4% | inferred | |
| Foxconn (Hon Hai) | manufacturer | public | 2317.TW | 245 TWD | -1.6% | inferred | |
| Jentech | manufacturer | public | 3653.TW | 6070 TWD | -7.3% | inferred | |
| Boyd | manufacturer | private | inferred | ||||
| Cooler Master | manufacturer | private | inferred | ||||
| Taisol | manufacturer | private | inferred |
Who competes here
The same table read the other way: every company above competes for air-cooled heatsinks & vapor chambers sockets. Confidence tags matter — an inferred placement is a lead, not a confirmed rivalry.
Nearby parts
- Previous in layer: Rack PDUs
- Layer: Layer 4 — Servers, racks & integration
From the blog
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- Gigabyte Z890M Aorus Elite WiFi7 Motherboard Review: Icy-white SFF board offers full-size features for Intel — Tom's Hardware, 2026-10-23
- HEC Compucase AI server products drive 2026 revenue growth — DigiTimes, 2026-09-20HEC Compucase expects sustained double-digit revenue growth in 2026, driven by shipments of AI server products, cooling modules, and high-end power supplies.
- AI boom could leave an e-waste trail that wraps 6 times around Earth — The Register, 2026-09-19The report warns that e-waste estimates focused only on GPUs fail to account for the significant waste generated by power, cooling, and networking infrastructure.
- AI server exports to US slow; electronics parts jump 1.5 times in August — DigiTimes, 2026-09-13Taiwan reported that electronic parts exports reached a record high of $32.22 billion in August 2026, with integrated circuits and printed circuit boards seeing significant growth.
- AI server tracker: Taiwan's rack supply chain reveals where the AI buildout is accelerating — DigiTimes, 2026-09-11Taiwanese suppliers of rack-scale components, including rail kits, thermal solutions, and power supplies, booked significant revenue increases in August, indicating accelerating AI buildout.
- Topco targets optical comms, cooling as copper gives way — DigiTimes, 2026-09-04System integration hurdles, particularly regarding short-reach optical communications for AI chips, are slowing the commercialization of high-speed optical and cooling solutions.
- Macronix boosts sustainability spending to NT$780 million — DigiTimes, 2026-09-02Macronix reported that it achieved significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and committed to investing NT$780 million in sustainability initiatives for 2025.
- Fractal Define One case review: Balancing noise and thermals — Tom's Hardware, 2026-09-02Fractal's Define One case review analyzes the trade-offs between acoustic noise and thermal management in data center rack enclosures.
- Techie creates a database of coil-whining graphics cards, power supplies, and liquid cooler pumps — open-source project wants community reports of affected parts — Tom's Hardware, 2026-09-02An open-source project was started to catalog parts like graphics cards, PSUs, and liquid cooler pumps that may suffer from coil whining and is seeking community reports.
Questions about air-cooled heatsinks & vapor chambers
- What are air-cooled heatsinks & vapor chambers?
- The finned aluminum or copper heatsinks and vapor chambers that spread and dissipate heat from chips that rely on airflow (4.13) rather than a liquid cold plate.
- Which companies make air-cooled heatsinks for AI data centers?
- This catalog lists 9 companies on Air-cooled heatsinks & vapor chambers, 6 of them with listed equity: Auras, AVC, Chaun-Choung CCI, Delta Electronics, Foxconn (Hon Hai), Jentech, Boyd, Cooler Master, Taisol.
- How does AI change demand for air-cooled heatsinks & vapor chambers?
- As the highest-power chips in a rack move to liquid cooling, heatsinks and vapor chambers narrow to the components liquid cooling doesn't reach, shrinking in scope even as they get squeezed into more crowded, liquid-plumbed chassis.
- How reliable are these air-cooled heatsinks & vapor chambers supplier placements?
- The 9 placements on this part break down as 9 inferred. "disclosed" means the company or a filing says so; "reported" comes from trade press or a reference-design list; "inferred" is a taxonomy lead with no citation yet.
Sources: placements without a source URL come from the taxonomy seed and are tagged accordingly. How this data is built.· Markdown · JSON