Huawei Unveils Industry's First 51.2T Liquid-Cooled Switch Leading Green Data Center Transformation

Huawei launched the industry's first 51.2T liquid-cooled box switch at Mobile World Congress 2026 (MWC 2026), featuring a 128×400GE configuration. This innovative product will help operators and enterprises build greener and more efficient AI data center networks.

51.2T: Industry First

This new liquid-cooled box switch is the first product in the industry to support 51.2Tbps switching capacity. 51.2T is several times that of traditional chassis switches, meeting the explosive bandwidth demand of the AI era.

"With the explosion of large models and AI applications, data center networks are facing unprecedented bandwidth pressure," said the president of Huawei's Data Communication Product Line at the launch event. "Our 51.2T liquid-cooled box switch will provide customers with a choice that is both high-performance and energy-efficient."

Liquid Cooling: Key to Green Data Centers

The biggest highlight of this switch is its liquid cooling technology. Compared to traditional air cooling systems, liquid cooling can more effectively remove heat, significantly reducing data center energy consumption and cooling costs.

Specifically, liquid cooling brings the following advantages:

Higher cooling efficiency: Liquids have higher specific heat capacity than air, enabling faster heat removal. Lower PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness): Liquid cooling can reduce data center PUE to below 1.1, while traditional air cooling typically exceeds 1.5. Smaller footprint: Due to higher cooling efficiency, liquid cooling systems require less equipment space. Quieter operation: Liquid cooling systems eliminate large fan noise issues.

128×400GE: Future-Ready Port Design

This switch uses a design with 128 400GE ports, achieving a total switching capacity of 51.2Tbps. 400GE ports are one of the most advanced Ethernet port standards available, providing sufficient bandwidth for AI training clusters, cloud computing, and high-performance computing scenarios.

Huawei stated this switch is particularly suitable for deployment in:

AI Training Data Centers: Providing high-speed network interconnection for large-scale GPU clusters. Cloud Computing Backbone Networks: Meeting bandwidth demands from public cloud business growth. Operator Metropolitan Networks: Supporting 5G and future 6G service backhaul.

Market Significance

Industry analysts believe Huawei's 51.2T liquid-cooled switch launch marks a new era for data center network equipment. Previously, data center operators had to compromise between performance and energy efficiency. Now, liquid cooling technology allows both to be achieved.

"This is a game-changer for the data center industry," said an unnamed industry analyst. "As AI workloads continue to grow, energy efficiency will become a key factor in data center competitiveness. Huawei has demonstrated its technological leadership through this product."

Driving Industry's Green Transformation

Huawei's move also responds to the growing global demand for green data centers. As climate change becomes increasingly urgent, data center energy consumption and carbon emissions have become major challenges facing the tech industry.

Liquid cooling technology not only reduces energy consumption but also minimizes water resource usage. In contrast, traditional evaporative cooling systems consume significant water resources. Huawei's liquid-cooled switch uses a closed-loop cooling system, almost no water consumption.

Reference: Bilibili