Who makes fans for AI data centers
Fans (air-cooled servers, hybrid trays)
The axial and centrifugal fans mounted in server chassis and rack trays that move air across heatsinks and boards, still needed even in racks that use liquid cooling for the highest-power chips.
Tray and chassis fans sit alongside the heatsinks and vapor chambers (4.17) as the air-cooling half of a rack's thermal design, and they remain necessary even in a liquid-cooled rack-scale system, since cold plates (layer 5) typically cool only the GPUs and a few other hot components while the rest of the tray — memory, VRMs, networking silicon — still relies on airflow. That makes fans a hybrid-cooling-era component: as more of a rack's heat load moves to liquid, fan count per tray can fall, but it doesn't go to zero, and the fans that remain often have to move air through a more crowded, liquid-plumbed chassis than before. For investors, this is a mature, competitive component category without a strong bottleneck, so the more relevant question is the net demand trajectory as liquid cooling adoption rises — fewer fans per liquid-cooled tray, but more total trays being built.
AI delta: Even in a liquid-cooled rack, cold plates typically cool only the GPUs, so fans remain necessary for memory, VRMs and networking silicon on the same tray, making air-cooling components a hybrid-era holdover rather than something liquid cooling eliminates outright.
Companies on this part (8)
| Company | Role | Ownership | Ticker | Price | 1d | Confidence | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AVC | manufacturer | public | 3017.TW | 3145 TWD | -2.8% | inferred | |
| Delta Electronics | manufacturer | public | 2308.TW | 1560 TWD | -3.4% | inferred | |
| Foxconn (Hon Hai) | manufacturer | public | 2317.TW | 245 TWD | -1.6% | inferred | |
| Nidec | manufacturer | public | 6594.T | 1705 JPY | -0.5% | inferred | |
| Sanyo Denki | manufacturer | public | 6516.T | 4865 JPY | -2.5% | disclosed | · source |
| Sunon | manufacturer | public | 2421.TW | 155 TWD | -2.5% | inferred | |
| Cooler Master | manufacturer | private | inferred | ||||
| ebm-papst | manufacturer | private | inferred |
Who competes here
The same table read the other way: every company above competes for fans sockets. Confidence tags matter — an inferred placement is a lead, not a confirmed rivalry.
Seen in real machines
fans is named in 1 of the rack teardowns and supercomputer breakdowns on this site. Each line below is a piece of that machine. The companies shown are the ones named on that line, not necessarily the maker of this part.
- Nvidia GB300 NVL72 · rack teardown
- Tray fans (for non-GPU components) — Delta Electronics, Nidec, Sunon, AVC
Nearby parts
- Previous in layer: Power shelves & PSUs
- Next in layer: Chassis, rails, rack enclosures
- Layer: Layer 4 — Servers, racks & integration
From the blog
- Part of the day: Fans 2026-09-29
- Eight parts of an AI data center have no US-listed supplier at all 2026-09-04
Latest feed
- First Intel Panther Lake mini PC cooled with solid-state AirJet tech operates at less than 21 dBA — Tom's Hardware, 2026-10-01Intel has released a Panther Lake mini PC that utilizes solid-state AirJet cooling technology to maintain noise levels below 21 dBA.
- Minebea Mitsumi pauses M&A to chase AI hardware demand — DigiTimes, 2026-09-15Minebea Mitsumi paused its mergers and acquisitions plans to focus its production of motors and actuators in response to accelerating demand from AI hardware and data center components.
- 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.
- Powerlogic revenue rises for 3rd straight month on niche demand — DigiTimes, 2026-09-10Fan manufacturer Powerlogic reported a 2.47% increase in month-over-month revenue in August 2026, citing niche applications as a support for its operations.
- 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.
- 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 fans
- What are fans?
- The axial and centrifugal fans mounted in server chassis and rack trays that move air across heatsinks and boards, still needed even in racks that use liquid cooling for the highest-power chips.
- Which companies make fans for AI data centers?
- This catalog lists 8 companies on Fans, 6 of them with listed equity: AVC, Delta Electronics, Foxconn (Hon Hai), Nidec, Sanyo Denki, Sunon, Cooler Master, ebm-papst.
- How does AI change demand for fans?
- Even in a liquid-cooled rack, cold plates typically cool only the GPUs, so fans remain necessary for memory, VRMs and networking silicon on the same tray, making air-cooling components a hybrid-era holdover rather than something liquid cooling eliminates outright.
- How reliable are these fans supplier placements?
- The 8 placements on this part break down as 1 disclosed, 7 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