Cooling fan demand for AI servers is high, according to Taiwan-based cooling module maker Sunonwealth Electric Machine Industrial (Sunon), which has seen a significant increase in customer interest and demand for their products.
Liquid cooling may provide a revolutionary approach to heat dissipation, but air cooling continues to be the most popular option. The specifications of standard server fans are insufficient for cooling AI CPUs. As the fan grows in size, the number of fan motors required to operate it must increase from one to two, resulting in a rise in the average selling price of products offered by Sunon, the company said.
Sunon's primary target market in the first half of 2023 was servers and networking devices, which accounted for 38.2% of company revenue, the company disclosed. The product segment saw a 28.4% on-year revenue increase during the six-month period.
Sunon also enjoyed an on-year increase of 32.9% in revenue generated from the automotive segment in the first half of 2023, according to the cooling fan specialist. Its total revenue for the six-month period came to NT$6.36 billion (US$199.1 million), down 3.8% from the same period in 2022, while net profits climbed 37.9% from a year earlier to NT$673 million.
A ramp-up in shipments for AI servers buoyed Sunon's profitability in the first half of this year, said the company, adding that the shipment prospects remain promising.
Sunon's shipments for general-purpose servers registered an on-year drop in the first half of 2023, however. Rising shipments for AI servers helped boosted the company's product ASPs. AI servers accounted for nearly 10% of Sunon's total shipments for server applications in the second quarter, up from just a single-digit percentage in the first.
Sunon expressed optimism about its overall profit performance in 2023, thanks to rising product ASPs.
Article translated by Jessie Shen
