China International Capital Co (CICC) says proximal (near-chip) heat spreading and liquid cooling are complementary as GPU power for H100, Blackwell and Rubin series climbs past the kW level and 3D packaging raises local heat flux, exposing copper/aluminum thermal limits. Diamond, with ~2,000 W/m·K thermal conductivity and low thermal expansion, can rapidly even out chip hotspots; CICC expects implementations where diamond handles near-chip lateral heat spreading while full liquid cooling remove

2026-06-25

China International Capital Co (CICC) says proximal (near-chip) heat spreading and liquid cooling are complementary as GPU power for H100, Blackwell and Rubin series climbs past the kW level and 3D packaging raises local heat flux, exposing copper/aluminum thermal limits. Diamond, with ~2,000 W/m·K thermal conductivity and low thermal expansion, can rapidly even out chip hotspots; CICC expects implementations where diamond handles near-chip lateral heat spreading while full liquid cooling removes system- and rack-level heat — a composite diamond-heat-spreader plus full-liquid-cooling solution is likely for future high-end AI servers.