Congress orders study on liquid cooling for AI—with industry writing the playbook
S. 3269 — Liquid Cooling for AI Act of 2025 · Filed by Dave McCormick (R-PA) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced Nov 20, 2025 · Hearing held
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What it does
This bill directs the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a comprehensive review of liquid cooling technologies for data centers and AI systems, examining their energy efficiency, performance, safety, and market adoption. The Department of Energy will then assess the GAO's findings and recommend whether the federal government should prioritize liquid cooling over traditional air cooling for its own AI and data center operations.
Why we flagged it
The bill is a study and advisory mandate, not a direct subsidy or deregulation. It establishes a GAO review and DOE assessment process to evaluate liquid cooling adoption for federal data centers, with no immediate spending or regulatory carve-outs embedded in the text.
What the text implies
- By framing liquid cooling as essential to 'maintain US global lead in AI technologies,' the bill may create political pressure for federal procurement preferences or R&D subsidies favoring liquid-cooling vendors, even if not explicitly mandated here.
- The advisory committee includes 'interested parties' from 'liquid cooling industry organizations,' creating a potential conflict of interest: vendors and operators who profit from liquid cooling adoption will directly advise the government on whether to adopt it.
The full analysis lists 5 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
liquid cooling hardware manufacturers (e.g., Asetek, Xylem, Vertiv); data center operators (Equinix, Digital Realty, CoreWeave); AI chip and server manufacturers (AMD, Intel, NVIDIA via HPE, Cisco)