In mid-September this year, NVIDIA's Vera Rubin NVL72 made its debut in the MLPerf inference test, setting a new industry record with its performance.

This behemoth, with a single server rack exceeding 350 kilowatts of power, submerges all chips and network components in a liquid cooling system, leaving not a single fan inside the chassis.

This was not a routine product launch but a technical standard directive issued to the entire industry chain. NVIDIA's move came faster than expected.

By August, the Vera Rubin platform had already entered full-scale production and begun shipping, with racks deployed at CoreWeave, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle already operational.

The company's CEO dropped a staggering figure during the earnings call: for every 1 gigawatt of computing power deployed, there is approximately $40 billion in revenue opportunity, with Vera Rubin set to contribute 20% of data center revenue in the next quarter.

More aggressively, NVIDIA has teamed up with capital giants like Apollo, Blackstone, and KKR to plan leveraging over $500 billion in third-party funding for AI infrastructure construction.

The logic behind these numbers is simple: as AI computing power evolves from thousand-card clusters to ten-thousand, hundred-thousand, or even million-card setups, the form of data centers must undergo a complete overhaul.

Power density jumps from a few kilowatts to 350 kilowatts, making air cooling obsolete; power consumption leaps from megawatt to gigawatt scale, rendering traditional UPS power supply efficiency inadequate; every aspect—cooling, power supply, networking—has its physical limits rewritten.

The old IDC architecture has reached its limits, and new AIDC standards are being established.

The cruelty of this generational shift lies in the fact that not all participants can keep pace.

01. Computing Power Demand Surges, But Not All Benefit Equally

There is little reason to be bearish on the demand side of AIDC. The Chinese AIDC market is projected to reach RMB 177.8 billion by 2026 and nearly RMB 400 billion by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of approximately 58%.

The three major telecom operators treat computing power as their second growth engine—China Mobile's AIDC revenue soared by 486.1%, China Telecom's intelligent computing revenue grew by 95%, with a 94% utilization rate of intelligent computing resources.

However, this money is not evenly distributed across the industry chain. Runze Technology reported first-half revenue of RMB 3.746 billion, up 50.05%, with a net profit of RMB 1.203 billion and a gross margin of 46.58%. Its AIDC computing power business revenue surged by 126% year-on-year, with operating cash flow reaching RMB 2.958 billion, 2.5 times its net profit.

Its model involves leasing computing power, charging by Token or GPU hours, earning money through an "operational logic."

In contrast, SinoNet reported revenue of RMB 3.332 billion, down 10.34%, with a net profit of RMB 60.86 million, a sharp decline of 47.09%. Its gross margin stood at 13.73%, with an ROE of just 0.51%.

Its IDC business continued to grow—revenue from IDC and value-added services rose by 9.38% in the first half—but this growth rate lagged significantly behind the over 50% demand growth in the AIDC sector.

Cloud computing revenue plummeted by 17.32%, and revenue from its subsidiary Wushuang Technology collapsed by 48.88%, directly dragging down overall performance.

Its model involves leasing server racks and power, charging by U-space or rack, earning money through a "real estate logic." Despite similar revenue scales, the profit gap between the two companies is 20-fold.

This contrast reveals a market fact often overlooked: AIDC is not a uniformly rising industry but a generational shift. Baoxin Software's data offers another perspective.

First-half revenue reached RMB 5.632 billion, up 19.45%, performing steadily amid the recovery of industrial software.

However, net profit stood at RMB 707 million, showing nearly zero growth. This indicates that the majority of AIDC profits are captured by upstream and leading operators, while midstream industrial software + IDC platform companies still rely on traditional business models.

At DataPort, revenue slightly declined by 3.57%, while profit inched up by 1.09%, with strong cash flow but limited growth potential.

Its core customer is Alibaba, and binding to a giant means stable orders but also limited bargaining power. In the high-growth AIDC sector, it resembles a "steady but slow" player.

Under the overarching trend of robust supply and demand, profit distribution across the industry chain remains highly uneven.

Companies with computing power operational capabilities that can meet the demands of large-scale model training and inference enjoy the "triple high" treatment of high gross margins, high ROE, and high cash flow.

Those still stuck in traditional server rack leasing models face triple pressures of slowing growth, declining prices, and shrinking gross margins.

02. Liquid Cooling and Power Supply Reconstruction: Technological Iteration Reshuffles the Deck

NVIDIA's Rubin platform, with its 100% liquid-cooled design, has issued a mandate to the entire upstream supply chain.

As single-rack power jumps from a few kilowatts to 350 kilowatts, air cooling becomes physically insufficient for heat dissipation. Liquid cooling has shifted from an "optional solution" to the "only solution."

The liquid cooling market is projected to grow by 104.8% in 2026 and 65.4% in 2027. As a leader in liquid cooling temperature control, Envicool reported first-half revenue of RMB 3.017 billion, up 17.24%, with data center temperature control revenue growing by 25.84%.

However, net profit declined by 14.32%, and gross margin fell year-on-year. Rising revenue but falling profit—a typical characteristic of the technological iteration phase: demand explosions drive order growth, but price wars and capacity ramp-ups compress profit margins.

Q2 net profit already showed sequential recovery, indicating that the liquid cooling leader is emerging from its toughest phase.

The power supply sector is undergoing equally dramatic changes. NVIDIA is strongly promoting an 800V DC power supply architecture, with traditional UPS systems being replaced by BBUs (Battery Backup Units) and HVDC (High-Voltage Direct Current).

Delta showcased its 800VDC In-Row 660kW power rack at GTC 2026, featuring an 80kW BBU and AC-DC conversion efficiency as high as 98%.

These technical parameters translate to a fundamental reconstruction of AIDC's power supply system. Hophow Electric reported first-half data center power revenue of RMB 808 million, up 98.48% year-on-year, with single-half revenue already surpassing the total for 2025.

This growth rate directly reflects the speed of the power supply architecture transition. However, profit growth stood at just 15.81%, with a gross margin of 21.51% and negative operating cash flow of RMB 269 million—orders have been secured, but profits have not fully materialized. Kehua Data's performance was relatively balanced.

First-half net profit reached RMB 396 million, up 62.69%, with Q2 net profit surging by 82.25%. Data center business grew by 13.81%, while overseas revenue skyrocketed by 135%.

It has secured a position in the transition from UPS to HVDC, with breakthroughs in overseas markets providing additional growth momentum.

The divergence among these upstream companies reveals a deeper logic: AIDC's technological iteration is not a linear upgrade but a generational shift.

Liquid cooling replacing air cooling, 800V DC replacing UPS, BBUs replacing traditional backup power—each technological route switch creates new leaders and eliminates outdated players. 2026 marks the acceleration phase of this transition, with those whose products align with NVIDIA's rhythm securing orders well into next year.

AIDC is evolving from "heavy-asset leasing" to "computing power operational services." Runze Technology's 46.58% gross margin and RMB 2.958 billion in cash flow already prove the profitability of this business model.

SinoNet's 13.73% gross margin and RMB 60.86 million in net profit also demonstrate the low ceiling of the old model. Upstream in the industry chain, technological iterations in liquid cooling and power supply are creating new structural opportunities.

Envicool's dominance in liquid cooling, Hophow Electric's HVDC doubling in growth, and Kehua Data's overseas breakthroughs—each has its own narrative and profit realization timeline.

NVIDIA's Vera Rubin and $500 billion financing plan have pressed the accelerator on global AIDC construction. However, not all players will benefit from this acceleration—only those keeping pace with the technological generational shift will.

Old rules are invalid ( invalid means "losing effectiveness" in Chinese, but for English, we say " invalid " translates to " invalid " in context, though a more natural phrase would be "Old rules are invalid " -> "Old rules are losing effectiveness" or "Old rules are being rendered obsolete." Here, I'll use the latter for clarity), and new rules are being established.

In this transition, companies with computing power operational capabilities and suppliers keeping up with liquid cooling and power supply iterations are redefining the industry's value distribution.

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