Daikin Applied's DDC Solutions Opens Live AI Cooling Showcase in Operating Data Center

The new customer experience unites Daikin Applied facility-level cooling, DDC Solutions rack containment and Chilldyne direct-to-chip liquid cooling under live, high-density GPU workloads.

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 4, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- DDC Solutions, part of the Daikin Applied group, today announced the opening of the AI Cooling Showcase at ScaleMatrix in San Diego, giving data center customers the opportunity to experience a complete, integrated cooling architecture operating under live, high-density GPU workloads.

As the operating entity for the Showcase, DDC Solutions manages the customer visit program, architecture briefings, and customizable training curriculum on behalf of the Daikin Applied group.

The Showcase brings together complementary capabilities across the portfolio – from Daikin Applied's facility-level chiller infrastructure to DDC Solutions' rack containment and airside thermal management to Chilldyne's direct-to-chip liquid cooling. Together, these technologies demonstrate how to address the full thermal challenge from the chiller plant to the chip.  Cirrascale Cloud Services, a leading neocloud provider and anchor tenant at the facility, runs active client AI workloads on the infrastructure. Prospective customers, partners, and existing accounts can visit, observe, and validate the architecture under real load, not staged conditions.

One Daikin Applied portfolio — from chiller plant to chip

The AI Cooling Showcase reflects Daikin Applied's broader strategy to bring the full depth of its data center cooling portfolio to customers as one integrated solution. Daikin Applied is one of the world's largest HVAC and chiller manufacturers, with decades of experience in mission-critical cooling. DDC Solutions and Chilldyne extend that capability to the rack level, closing the gap between facility-level thermal infrastructure and the chip-level cooling demands that modern AI GPU clusters require.

Together, these complementary capabilities address distinct but interdependent layers of the same thermal management challenge: Daikin Applied handles the chiller plant and facility-level cooling; DDC manages the airside environment at the rack, including physical containment, fire suppression and DCIM monitoring; and Chilldyne's negative-pressure CDU captures heat directly at the GPU die, where air cooling cannot reach at scale.

"This Showcase is built to give infrastructure buyers a real answer before they commit. The combination of Daikin Applied's facility-level chiller infrastructure, DDC's rack containment and Chilldyne's negative-pressure CDU is the most complete asset protection and cooling architecture available for high-density AI deployments. Customers walk out of here with confidence, knowing exactly what they're buying."

Keith Markley, Chief Executive Officer, DDC Solutions

A hybrid architecture that solves the full thermal problem

Modern AI workloads generate heat that no single cooling technology can fully address alone. Direct-to-chip liquid cooling captures most of the heat generated at the processor level, but a meaningful portion of thermal load — from power distribution, storage, networking and chassis components — remains airside and must be managed separately. Architectures that ignore this residual heat create hotspots, reduce equipment longevity and compromise reliability at scale.

The Showcase runs a rack-contained, hybrid cooling architecture under live GPU load, giving customers the opportunity to observe the complete thermal solution operating under real conditions rather than a staged demo.

Asset protection engineered into the architecture

At the densities AI workloads require, a cooling failure can put millions of dollars in GPU infrastructure at risk. The integrated Daikin Applied architecture addresses this at multiple layers:

• DDC S-Series NEMA 3R-rated rack containment unit: provides fully sealed physical containment at the rack level, protecting GPU hardware from contamination, unauthorized access, and environmental risk. Integrated rack-level fire suppression detects and contains thermal events before they propagate to adjacent equipment.
• Chilldyne negative-pressure CDU: eliminates the primary failure mode of conventional liquid cooling. Because the system operates under negative pressure, any seal failure draws air inward rather than forcing coolant onto hardware.
• Daikin Applied facility-level chiller infrastructure: provides the stable, high-capacity facility cooling backbone that enables the rack-level systems to operate within their designed parameters — without the variability that underpowered or mismatched facility cooling introduces.

The three layers together mean operators are protected at the facility, rack, and chip levels simultaneously — rather than relying on a single system to prevent a multi-million-dollar loss event.

"Across Daikin Applied's portfolio, our facility-, rack- and chip-level technologies each address a different layer of the AI cooling challenge. Our goal is straightforward: we want infrastructure buyers to walk in, see a real system under real load and leave with a clear answer to the question of what it takes to cool and protect a high-density AI cluster. Daikin Applied can deliver that answer from the chiller plant to the chip."

Greg Jeffers, VP of Data Center Solutions, Daikin Applied

Onsite training: protecting and cooling AI workloads

In addition to the physical showcase, DDC offers a structured onsite training course as part of every scheduled visit. The course covers hybrid cooling architecture design, failure mode analysis across airside and liquid cooling systems, asset protection strategies and infrastructure planning for next-generation GPU density. The training is led by DDC's solution engineering team and is appropriate for data center owners, operators, and infrastructure architects evaluating cooling strategies for current or planned deployments.

Schedule a visit

The AI Cooling Showcase is open for scheduled visits to qualified customers, prospects, and partners. Visits include a facility walkthrough, live workload observation under real GPU load, and a full architecture briefing covering the Daikin cooling stack. To request a visit, complete the short form at: www.ddcsolutions.com/ai-cooling-showcase

About DDC Solutions 

DDC Solutions, part of Daikin Applied, develops next‑generation rack containment and cooling platforms for high‑density AI and HPC environments. DDC's solutions are engineered to protect critical GPU assets, support any density cooling strategy, reduce mechanical complexity, and enable more efficient, risk‑resilient data center operations. More information: www.ddcsolutions.com

About Daikin Applied Americas 

Daikin Applied Americas, a member of the global Daikin group, is a leader in commercial and mission-critical HVAC and cooling solutions. Through the complementary capabilities of DDC Solutions and Chilldyne, Daikin Applied delivers an integrated cooling portfolio spanning facility-level chiller infrastructure, rack-level containment and airside management, and direct-to-chip liquid cooling — purpose-built for the thermal demands of high-density AI data centers.

About Chilldyne 

Chilldyne, part of Daikin Applied, manufactures direct-to-chip liquid cooling systems built on a patented negative-pressure architecture that has maintained a zero-leak record across all field deployments since 2014. Unlike conventional positive-pressure CDUs — where a seal failure forces coolant outward onto hardware — Chilldyne's negative-pressure design draws air inward on any failure, keeping hardware dry and alerting operators immediately. All Chilldyne products are engineered and assembled in the United States.

SOURCE DDC Solutions