HD Hyundai Oilbank’s new partnership with Seoul National University (SNU) matters far more than its modest scale suggests. It’s a small pilot with big implications for Korea’s data-center future, one of the more meaningful signs that Korea is ready to confront the rapidly widening gap between AI’s compute demands and the outdated cooling systems still supporting them.
The collaboration brings together SNU, Databean, and HD Hyundai Oilbank to test an immersion cooling system inside the university’s AI research lab, an environment already struggling with heat and noise from traditional air-cooling. Beginning in early 2026, SNU will provide the GPU servers, Databean will deploy its SmartBox system and monitor real-world performance, and HD Hyundai Oilbank will supply the cooling fluid while offering technical and maintenance support.
For anyone watching the global infrastructure race, this shift feels inevitable. As AI models grow more computationally demanding, hyperscalers worldwide are turning to immersion cooling because air simply can’t deliver the efficiency required. The technology submerges servers in non-conductive liquid, slashing power use and extending hardware life, advantages that traditional systems can’t match.
Yet despite all the marketing buzz, what the industry still lacks is grounded validation: compatibility checks, safety data, and proof that these systems can run reliably under actual research-lab conditions.
That’s the quiet significance of this project. HD Hyundai Oilbank is positioning itself as the first in Korea to verify immersion cooling in an AI research environment, building the foundation it needs to expand into large-scale data-center cooling. And with its X Teer E-Cooling Fluid already in use by Naver Cloud, the company clearly sees where the market is headed.
If the results are strong, and they likely will be, this pilot could nudge Korean data-center operators toward a cooling model that actually matches the pace of AI’s growth.
