Valeo Group | 16 Feb, 2026
| 7 min
A strategic collaboration combining automotive-grade thermal expertise, industrial-scale manufacturing capabilities, and agile high-performance server design to support India’s AI and 5G expansion.
16 February – New Delhi, India – In response to India’s rapid digital acceleration, Valeo and 2CRSi are advancing their collaboration with a new solution specifically designed for local edge data centers. This project directly addresses the infrastructure challenges driven by nationwide 5G deployment and the rapid expansion of AI applications.
Set to be unveiled at the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, the prototype solution demonstrates both companies’ commitment to delivering maintenance-free, energy-efficient, reliable, high-performance Edge AI infrastructure tailored to India’s demanding climate conditions and scalable to support the country’s long-term digital growth strategy. Building on the partnership initiated in November 2025, Valeo and 2CRSi have reached a new milestone with the development of an autonomous (water-free) immersion-cooled solution engineered for decentralized digital infrastructure.
By combining 2CRSi’s advanced expertise in server architecture and manufacturing with Valeo’s decades of experience in high-efficiency thermal management, system integration, and wide temperature-range operations – developed through its global automotive leadership – the two companies have designed a fully autonomous immersion-cooled edge computing system capable of operating in:
- Ambient temperatures exceeding 50°C
- High humidity conditions
- Dust-heavy environments
- Flood-prone locations
A Competitive Alternative to Conventional Edge Deployments
Unlike traditional edge infrastructure requiring dedicated buildings, water loops, chillers, and complex maintenance operations, the Valeo–2CRSi solution operates as a compact and standalone unit. The system eliminates water dependency, removes the need for chillers and mechanical cooling systems, reduces infrastructure footprint, and minimizes maintenance requirements.
This architecture significantly reduces deployment complexity, lowers both CAPEX and OPEX, and improves Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for telecom operators and infrastructure providers — a critical factor for large-scale 5G rollouts and distributed AI inference.
Its automotive-grade reliability standards provide an additional structural advantage over conventional IT systems not originally engineered for extreme outdoor conditions.
To bring this technology to market, the partners will follow a rigorous industrialization roadmap throughout 2026. This includes pilot production runs, extensive field validation and certification processes to ensure full system reliability.
Design-for-manufacturing and production will be carried out in India, leveraging Valeo’s industrial footprint in Pune and Chennai. The validation cycle is expected to culminate in Start of Production (SOP) by November 2026, reinforcing both companies’ commitment to delivering sustainable, high-performance digital infrastructure anchored in local industrial capabilities.
“In line with our Elevate 2028 strategic plan, India is a priority region for Valeo’s growth,” said Christophe Périllat, CEO of Valeo. “While we are a global leader in automotive technology, this collaboration demonstrates our agility in delivering high-value solutions beyond the automotive sector, effectively transposing our proven industrial expertise to meet the needs of new industries. India’s dynamic AI ecosystem and rapid 5G expansion create strong demand for resilient and energy-efficient edge solutions. Together with 2CRSi, we are developing technology designed to meet these challenges.”
Alain Wilmouth, Founder and CEO of 2CRSi, added: “India is a strategic market for edge computing. By combining Valeo’s proven thermal management capabilities with our immersion-cooled server architecture, we are delivering a solution engineered for extreme environmental conditions while ensuring high performance and optimized energy efficiency.”
Sustainability and Environmental Contribution
The solution also responds to growing environmental requirements associated with digital infrastructure expansion:
- Zero water consumption, eliminating a critical constraint in water-stressed regions;
- By replacing traditional air cooling (annualized Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) ~1.6) with immersion cooling (PUE < 1.1), the system reduces total infrastructure energy consumption by 30-35% translating into annual saving of 6-8MWh for a 1.5 kW IT load operation in outdoor conditions such as Bengaluru.
- Reduced carbon footprint, thanks to simplified infrastructure, lower mechanical dependency, and decentralized deployment.
Designed as a compact, standalone unit, the system operates without water loops, chillers, or dedicated buildings. This makes it uniquely suited for India’s edge environments, where 5G expansion and AI-driven services require resilient, low-maintenance infrastructure deployed close to telecom antennas, even in remote, dusty, humid locations.
By adapting automotive-grade reliability standards to digital infrastructure, Valeo and 2CRSi are contributing to the development of next-generation edge data centers capable of supporting AI inference, telecom networks, and emerging digital services across India.
