Alibaba Launches the World’s Largest Fully Immersed Liquid‑Cooled Data Center in Zhejiang

On September 16, Alibaba’s Zhejiang Cloud Computing Renhe Data Center, the world’s largest fully immersed liquid‑cooled data center, officially began operation. It is also China’s first data center to receive a 5‑star green rating. The opening ceremony was attended by senior officials from the Zhejiang Development and Reform Commission, Hangzhou municipal leaders, and Alibaba Cloud executives.

The Renhe facility, located near Alibaba’s Hangzhou headquarters, integrates the latest research from Alibaba’s DAMO Academy and Pingtouge chip team, delivering comprehensive upgrades in scale, computing power, energy efficiency, and intelligence. It deploys the world’s biggest liquid‑cooling cluster using single‑phase immersion technology, where an insulating coolant directly absorbs heat, eliminating the need for fans, air‑conditioners, or chillers. This design enables a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) as low as 1.09, the current global best, and provides reliable, sealed enclosures that protect IT equipment from external environmental impacts.

The fully immersed approach decouples cooling performance from local climate, allowing ultra‑low PUE in any weather zone worldwide. Alibaba first introduced immersion‑cooled servers in March 2016, and in June 2018 deployed the industry’s first large‑scale immersion cluster at the Beijing Winter‑Olympics cloud data center. The Renhe center is the latest flagship implementation of this technology.

Beyond technical innovation, the center supports China’s “new‑infrastructure” strategy, which positions data centers as a foundational pillar of the digital economy. In April 2020, the State Development and Reform Commission defined new‑type infrastructure, emphasizing technology‑driven, information‑network‑based services for high‑quality development. Alibaba announced a 200 billion‑yuan investment over three years to advance cloud operating systems, servers, chips, and networking, and has already built five super‑data‑center bases across the country, covering the Beijing‑Tianjin‑Hebei, Yangtze‑Delta, and Guangdong‑Hong Kong‑Macao economic zones.

Alibaba Cloud’s IDC division head Gao Shanyuan highlighted that the Renhe center is the first “member” of Alibaba’s Hangzhou super‑data‑center cluster, with additional members planned in Yuhang Economic Development Zone and Linping New City. Future expansions will extend to the Beijing‑Tianjin region, South China, and the western interior, forming a nationwide infrastructure blueprint that will underpin the next five to ten years of data‑center services and big‑data capabilities.