Chinese researchers have developed a new diamond-copper material that they say can improve the cooling efficiency of artificial intelligence (AI) data centres by up to 80 per cent.The functional carbon materials team – from the Ningbo Institute of Industrial Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) – said the composite material had already been deployed in an AI computing node in Zhengzhou in Henan province, China Science Daily reported.The global computing industry’s pursuit of AI breakthroughs is hitting a “thermal wall” – overheating caused by the significantly higher heat output of new-generation chips due to their increased power density.
SRCSouth China Morning Post
LANGEN
LEANCenter-Right
WORDS100
ENT5
THU · 2026-04-16 · 22:00 GMTBRIEF NSR-2026-0417-70165
NSR-2026-0417-70165News Report·EN·Technology
Diamond coating nearly doubles Chinese AI data centre’s cooling efficiency
Chinese researchers at the Ningbo Institute of Industrial Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have developed a diamond-copper composite material designed to significantly improve cooling efficiency in AI data centers. The new material is reported to increase cooling efficiency by up to 80%.
Holly ChikSouth China Morning PostFiled 2026-04-16 · 22:00 GMTLean · Center-RightRead · 1 min
South China Morning PostFIG 01
Reading time
1min
Word count
100words
Sources cited
1cited
Entities identified
5entities
Quality score
100%
§ 01
Briefing Summary
AI-generatedNEWSAR · AI
Chinese researchers at the Ningbo Institute of Industrial Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have developed a diamond-copper composite material designed to significantly improve cooling efficiency in AI data centers. The new material is reported to increase cooling efficiency by up to 80%. It has already been deployed in an AI computing node in Zhengzhou, Henan province. The development addresses the growing problem of overheating in AI data centers caused by the increased power density and heat output of new-generation chips. This "thermal wall" is hindering further advancements in the global computing industry's AI development.
Confidence 0.85Sources 1Claims 4Entities 5
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Article analysis
Model · rule-basedFraming
Technology
Economic Impact
Tone
Measured
AI-assessed
CalmNeutralAlarmist
Factuality
0.80 / 1.00
Factual
LowHigh
Sources cited
1
Limited
FewMany
§ 03
Key claims
4 extracted01
Overheating is caused by the significantly higher heat output of new-generation chips.
factual
Confidence
0.90
02
The composite material has already been deployed in an AI computing node in Zhengzhou.
factualfunctional carbon materials team
Confidence
0.90
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New diamond-copper material can improve cooling efficiency of AI data centres by up to 80 per cent.
factualChinese researchers
Confidence
0.80
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Global computing industry’s pursuit of AI breakthroughs is hitting a “thermal wall”.
factual
Confidence
0.70
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Full report
1 min read · 100 words§ 05
Entities
5 identifiedKey playerOppositionContextPositiveNeutralNegative
Organizations2
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Keywords & salience
8 termscooling efficiency
0.90
data centres
0.90
artificial intelligence
0.80
diamond coating
0.70
thermal wall
0.60
heat output
0.60
composite material
0.50
ai computing
0.50
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