Trump Orders Data Center Expansion Amid Cooling Tech Shift

The Trump administration issued an Executive Order to accelerate the national increase of data center infrastructure to support growing technological demands. This expansion coincides with a industry-wide transition from traditional air cooling to liquid cooling technologies, necessitated by the extreme heat generated by cryptocurrency mining and artificial intelligence.

Direct-to-chip cooling currently leads the market, a trend supported by Nvidia's endorsement of the technology for its Blackwell supercomputing chips. However, immersion cooling—which involves submerging electronics in dielectric fluids—is gaining traction due to its energy efficiency. To support this shift, chemical companies including ExxonMobil, Shell, Cargill, and Chemours are developing specialized hydrocarbon, biobased, and fluorinated fluids.

Despite the push for growth, critics warn that rapid data center expansion is triggering environmental and public health crises. Reports highlight the loss of U.S. farmland and excessive water consumption that mandates residential conservation. Furthermore, increased air pollution from nitrous oxide and diesel exhaust could potentially lead to hundreds of thousands of new asthma cases and billions in public healthcare costs by 2030.