AirTrunk and Emergence Quantum partner on cryogenic data centre cooling

AirTrunk and Australian startup Emergence Quantum have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore the application of cryogenic cooling technologies in future data centres. The partnership aims to assess whether cooling computer chips to extremely low temperatures can enhance performance and energy efficiency while reducing the water consumption required for cooling.

The collaboration will also investigate whether cryogenic approaches can enable “giga-Watt power storage” to better manage intermittent renewable energy supplies. Additionally, the companies will look into potential applications for carbon capture.

Emergence Quantum, which spun out of the University of Sydney, noted that while cryogenic computing has long offered speed and efficiency benefits, high costs and complexity have previously limited its use to niche applications. The companies suggest that the massive scale of modern data centres and the shrinking size of transistors may now make large-scale cryogenic cooling viable for next-generation quantum and AI infrastructure.