While global tech giants are still searching for solutions to the "heat dissipation anxiety" of AI chips, a seemingly unrelated material - ethyl silicone oil - is quietly entering the core battlefield of the computing age in an unexpected way.


A popular comeback of "unpopular materials"
To be honest, a year ago we didn't expect ethyl silicone oil to be related to AI. Dr. Zhou, the head of research and development at a leading domestic silicone enterprise, admitted that their company received an urgent request from a leading cloud computing enterprise last year to develop a silicone grease substrate for a new generation of AI training chips that can maintain stable thermal conductivity under extreme temperature differences.


The other party's requirements were extremely demanding: the working temperature of the chip fluctuated violently between -40 ℃ and 120 ℃, and ordinary methyl silicone oil would thicken or even solidify at low temperatures, which could not meet the requirements at all, "Dr. Zhou recalled." We tried more than ten solutions and finally found that ethyl silicone oil could maintain excellent fluidity at -70 ℃, making it one of the most outstanding varieties of low-temperature performance among known silicone liquids


After six months of research and development, the team has successfully developed a new type of wide temperature range thermal conductive silicone grease with ethyl silicone oil as the core substrate, which has been verified by customers and entered the stage of small-scale supply.


This breakthrough is opening up an unprecedented trillion dollar market for ethyl silicone oil.


The explosion of AI computing power has given rise to the urgent need for cooling down
The background of the story is the rapid development of the global AI industry.


According to the latest forecast from International Data Corporation (IDC), the global shipment of AI servers will exceed 3 million units by 2025, and the total demand for computing power will increase more than four times compared to 2023. However, the surge in computing power has brought a fatal bottleneck - heat.


The power consumption of a high-performance AI training server can reach over 10 kilowatts. Once the chip junction temperature exceeds the safety threshold, it may experience frequency reduction in mild cases or burn out in severe cases. Traditional heat dissipation solutions are approaching their physical limits, and the industry urgently needs high-performance interface thermal conductive materials.


And the unique advantage of ethyl silicone oil precisely hits this pain point:


Firstly, an ultra wide operating temperature range. The solidification point of ethyl silicone oil is below -70 ℃, and the working temperature can cover -60 ℃ to 150 ℃, perfectly adapting to the severe temperature difference switching between high load computing and standby cold start of AI chips. In contrast, conventional methyl silicone oil will significantly thicken below -40 ℃, greatly reducing its thermal conductivity efficiency.


Secondly, excellent dielectric performance. The dielectric constant of ethyl silicone oil is extremely low and the loss tangent is extremely small, which means that it will not interfere with the signal transmission of chips when used as an electrical insulation material - this is crucial for AI chips operating at high frequencies.


Thirdly, it has high compatibility with organic solvents. Ethyl silicone oil can be uniformly mixed with various functional fillers, making it easy for R&D personnel to customize formulas according to different chip architectures, and its flexibility far exceeds traditional thermal conductive materials.


We internally refer to ethyl silicone oil as the 'lubricant of the computing age,' "said the hardware engineer of the cloud computing company with a smile." Without it, even the strongest chips cannot run


Domestic substitution accelerates, foreign giants can no longer sit still
The rise of this new track has also put pressure on foreign giants that have long monopolized the high-end ethyl silicone oil market.


In the past, the global supply of high-purity ethyl silicone oil was almost firmly controlled by Dow (formerly known as Corning), Shin Etsu Chemical, and Wacker Chemicals, leaving domestic companies with only a share of the mid to low end market. But in the past two years, the situation is undergoing subtle changes.


At the end of 2024, a new material enterprise in Hubei Province built the first continuous production line of 10000 ton grade ethyl silicone oil in China, and the key indicators of the products have reached the international first-class level. What shocked the industry even more was that the company also simultaneously launched ultra-high purity ethyl silicone oil customized for the electronic heat dissipation field, with a metal impurity content controlled below one millionth, directly benchmarking Xinyue Chemical's top electronic grade products.


The price is only 60-70% of that of imported products, and the performance indicators are almost the same, "Dr. Zhou revealed." Now many domestic AI chip manufacturers have started to actively negotiate cooperation with us. "


A listed organic silicon company in Zhejiang has also been taking frequent actions. The company launched a new product of ethylene based modified ethyl silicone oil at the beginning of this year, which is specifically designed as a sealing material for 5G base stations and AI servers. Within just three months of its launch, it has won multiple orders worth tens of millions, and its revenue has skyrocketed by over 120% year-on-year.


From "niche specialty products" to "strategic new materials"
Industry experts believe that ethyl silicone oil is undergoing a profound identity transformation.


The Secretary General of the China Fluorosilicon Organic Materials Industry Association pointed out at the recent industry annual meeting that "ethyl silicone oil used to be defined as a 'niche special silicone product' with an annual consumption of only tens of thousands of tons. However, with the concentrated release of demand in the three major tracks of new energy, AI computing power, and aerospace, this variety is rising to become one of the most growth elastic strategic varieties in the silicone industry chain. "


According to the latest research report by Zhuochuang Information, the domestic market size of ethyl silicone oil is expected to exceed 2 billion yuan by 2027, with a compound annual growth rate of over 15%. Among them, the proportion of demand in the two emerging fields of electronic heat dissipation and new energy thermal management will jump from less than 30% to over 55%.


The chemical team of Guojin Securities listed ethyl silicone oil as the "most explosive variety" in the silicone subdivision track in the research report, and suggested that investors focus on leading enterprises with self-sufficiency in raw materials and downstream compounding technology.