Executive Summary

North America accounted for 42.0% of the Thermal Interface Materials for AI Data Centers Market in 2025, ahead of Asia Pacific at 28.0% and Europe at 20.0%. The market reached 3 USD Billion in 2025 and is projected to reach 15.9 USD Billion by 2035, a CAGR of 18.3% across 2025-2035.

GPU and AI accelerator power envelopes are outpacing air-cooling headroom. Vertiv’s AI infrastructure analysis identifies an air-to-liquid cooling transition through 2025 and beyond, lifting demand for gap fillers, phase change materials and metal-based interfaces at the cold-plate boundary.

Thermal Greases & Pastes led By Material Type, and GPU & AI Accelerators led By AI Data Center Application.

EU REACH restrictions on D4, D5 and D6 siloxanes are forcing silicone-grade reformulation in Europe. Competition turns on additive-package IP and OEM qualification wins rather than price.

Key Takeaways

• From USD 2.96 Billion in 2025, the market reaches USD 15.87 Billion by 2035 at 18.3% a year.
• Thermal Greases & Pastes is the largest material type category.
• On ai data center application, the leading category is GPU & AI Accelerators.
• 42.0% of 2025 revenue was earned in North America.
• 10 suppliers are profiled.

Market Definition and Scope

The Thermal Interface Materials for AI Data Centers Market covers thermal greases, gap fillers, thermal pads, phase change materials, thermal adhesives and metal-based formulations engineered to conduct heat across chip-to-heatsink, chip-to-cold-plate and package-to-enclosure interfaces in AI servers. End users include GPU and AI accelerator packaging, CPU sockets, memory and networking equipment, power electronics, and cooling modules across hyperscale, colocation and enterprise AI data center deployments.

The scope excludes bulk semiconductor packaging substrates, active liquid cooling hardware such as pumps and radiators, and general electronics adhesives sold outside AI server thermal management.

Growth Drivers and Restraints

GPU and AI accelerator power density is forcing a shift toward liquid-compatible interface materials

AI training and inference workloads have pushed GPU and AI accelerator package power past the thermal headroom of air-cooled heatsinks. Vertiv’s AI infrastructure analysis documents a transition from air cooling toward liquid cooling as AI rack and GPU power densities rise through 2025 and beyond. That shift moves qualification volume away from general-purpose silicone greases toward gap fillers, phase change films and liquid metal alloys suited to cold-plate and die-to-lid interfaces, where GPU & AI Accelerators already lead the By AI Data Center Application segment on installed base. OEM qualification against JEDEC thermal test methods and ASTM D5470 governs formulation design-in on each new accelerator generation.

Package thermal-resistance ceilings are shifting volume toward metal-based and phase-change formulations

Standard silicone greases reach a conductivity ceiling that struggles to keep pace with rising die power, pushing formulators toward gallium- and indium-based liquid metal alloys and phase change materials at the die-to-lid interface. These grades carry tighter thermal-resistance specifications and require re-qualification each time an accelerator package geometry changes, a cycle that repeats every GPU generation from NVIDIA and AMD. REACH Regulation (EU) 2024/1328 has also pushed formulators developing new silicone-based greases and adhesives to reformulate around D4, D5 and D6 restrictions, accelerating the move toward non-siloxane and metal-based chemistries in premium-grade products sold into Europe.

Hyperscale AI data center buildout is expanding installed base requiring qualified TIM volume

Hyperscale and colocation operators including Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta are commissioning new AI-optimized data center campuses to house growing GPU cluster counts, and each new server chassis carries its own thermal interface bill of materials spanning the die, the heat spreader and the cold plate or heatsink. North America, holding 42.0% of the market in 2025, has captured the largest share of this buildout, while Asia Pacific followed at 28.0% and Europe at 20.0%. Every added GPU socket adds recurring requalification demand for formulators supplying Thermal Greases & Pastes, the leading grade By Material Type.

EU siloxane restrictions are raising reformulation cost for silicone-based grades

REACH Regulation (EU) 2024/1328 bars D4, D5 and D6 cyclic siloxanes above 0.1% by weight in substances and mixtures placed on the EU market. Formulators selling silicone-based greases, pads and adhesives into Europe must requalify chemistries against non-restricted siloxanes or shift to metal-based and phase-change alternatives, adding reformulation and retest cost that compresses margin on premium-grade silicone lines.

Gallium and indium supply concentration is raising cost risk for metal-based TIMs

China’s Ministry of Commerce imposed export licensing on gallium and indium in August 2023, tightening supply of the two metals that liquid metal alloys and solder TIMs depend on for die-to-lid and lid-to-heatsink interfaces. Formulators sourcing gallium-indium-tin and gallium-indium eutectic grades face longer lead times and price volatility, slowing conversion away from lower-cost silicone and phase change alternatives in cost-sensitive segments.

Market Trends

AI rack liquid cooling is redirecting TIM specification from greases to gap fillers and cold-plate interfaces

Vertiv’s AI infrastructure analysis identifies a shift from air cooling toward liquid cooling as AI rack and GPU power densities rise through 2025 and beyond. Cold-plate and direct-to-chip designs replace open-air heatsinks with sealed liquid loops, changing the interface geometry TIMs must fill. Demand shifts from general-purpose silicone greases toward gap filler pads, liquids and phase change films rated for the sustained contact pressure and thermal cycling of cold-plate assemblies, a mix change concentrated in the GPU & AI Accelerators segment through 2035.

Liquid metal alloys are gaining share at the die-to-lid interface

Gallium-indium-tin and gallium-indium eutectic formulations are displacing polymer-carrier greases at the highest-power die-to-lid interfaces, where their higher thermal conductivity offsets a narrower processing window. NVIDIA and AMD accelerator generations with rising package power are the primary adopters, and OEM qualification against JEDEC thermal test methods and ASTM D5470 now gates which liquid metal and solder TIM grades win design-in, concentrating volume with formulators holding existing approval data rather than new entrants.

REACH restrictions on D4, D5 and D6 are pushing silicone formulations toward non-siloxane chemistries

Regulation (EU) 2024/1328 bars D4, D5 and D6 cyclic siloxanes above 0.1% by weight in substances and mixtures placed on the EU market, effective from its 2024 entry into Annex XVII of REACH. Formulators supplying silicone-based greases, pads and adhesives into Europe are reformulating around non-restricted siloxanes or shifting grade mix toward acrylic, urethane and metal-based chemistries, a substitution pattern concentrated in Thermal Pads and Thermal Adhesives sold to European AI data center buyers.

Segment Analysis

By Material Type

• Thermal Greases & Pastes (largest) – Viscous silicone or non-silicone compounds spread between a processor and heat sink to fill microscopic air gaps and conduct heat away

• Silicone-Based Greases
• Non-Silicone Greases
• Metal Oxide-Filled Greases
• Carbon/Graphite-Filled Greases
• Gap Fillers – Soft, compressible pads or dispensable putty-like compounds that bridge uneven, variable-height gaps between components, heat sinks, and enclosure walls

• Gap Filler Pads
• Gap Filler Putties
• Gap Filler Liquids/Gels
• Gap Filler Sheets
• Thermal Pads – Pre-formed solid elastomeric sheets cut to size and placed between chips and heat sinks for clean, repeatable, mess-free installation

• Silicone-Based Pads
• Non-Silicone (Acrylic/Urethane) Pads
• Graphite/Carbon Pads
• Phase Change Materials – Solid films that soften and flow into a liquid-like state once operating temperature is reached, conforming tightly to mating surfaces

• Phase Change Films
• Phase Change Pads
• Phase Change Greases/Pastes
• Thermal Adhesives – Adhesive compounds that permanently bond a component to its heat sink while also conducting heat, removing the need for mechanical clips

• Epoxy-Based Adhesives
• Silicone-Based Adhesives
• Acrylic-Based Adhesives
• Polyurethane-Based Adhesives
• Metal-Based TIMs – Compounds built from liquid metal or metal alloys, such as gallium or indium, used as the conductive medium instead of polymer carriers
• Liquid Metal Alloys

• Gallium-Indium-Tin (Galinstan)
• Gallium-Indium Eutectic
• Solder TIMs

• Indium-Based Solder
• Tin-Based Solder Alloys
• Metal Foils & Shims

Thermal Greases & Pastes lead the material-type axis in 2025. Their dominance rests on decades of use as the default die-to-lid and lid-to-heatsink medium in server assembly: greases spread easily into micro-scale surface irregularities, cost little per socket, and slot into existing automated dispensing lines without requalification. Metal-Based TIMs are growing fastest as GPU and AI accelerator packages push past the thermal-flux ceiling that silicone and non-silicone greases can dissipate efficiently. Gallium-indium liquid metal alloys and indium-based solder TIMs conduct heat several times more effectively at the die level, and hyperscale buyers are qualifying them for the highest-wattage accelerator sockets even though handling and corrosion-compatibility requirements add process complexity.

By AI Data Center Application

• GPU & AI Accelerators (largest) – The processors that run AI training and inference workloads, packaged with thermal interface materials to conduct heat from the die to a heat sink or cold plate

• Die-to-Lid Interface
• Lid-to-Heatsink/Cold Plate Interface
• HBM & Memory Stack Interface
• CPUs

• Die-to-Integrated Heat Spreader
• IHS-to-Heatsink Interface
• Memory & Networking Equipment – High-bandwidth memory modules, switches, and network interface cards that move and store data between servers, requiring thermal interface materials to manage heat from densely packed components

• DRAM/DIMM Modules
• Network Switches & Routers
• NICs & DPUs
• Optical Transceivers
• Power Electronics – Voltage regulators, power supply units, and busbars that convert and distribute electricity to server components, using thermal interface materials to dissipate heat generated during power conversion

• Voltage Regulator Modules (VRMs)
• Power Supply Units (PSUs)
• Busbars & Power Distribution
• Cooling Modules & Heat Sinks – Heat sinks, cold plates, and liquid cooling assemblies that draw heat away from data center hardware, relying on thermal interface materials to bridge the contact surface with the heat source

• Heat Sinks
• Cold Plates
• Vapor Chambers
• Heat Pipes

GPU & AI Accelerators lead consumption on the application axis in 2025. Each accelerator socket carries multiple TIM interfaces, at the die-to-lid, lid-to-heatsink or cold-plate, and HBM memory-stack junctions, so unit material intake per GPU far exceeds that of any other server component, and AI training and inference deployment is concentrated on these processors. Cooling Modules & Heat Sinks are growing fastest as operators reposition thermal budgets around the assemblies that carry heat away from the chip. Rising rack power density is pushing data centers from air-cooled heat sinks toward cold plates, vapor chambers and heat pipes, and each new liquid-cooling interface introduces its own TIM specification requirement.

Regional Analysis

North America

At 42.0% in 2025, this is the largest regional market, worth USD 1.24 Billion.

Asia Pacific

Asia Pacific is the second-largest regional market, at 28.0% of 2025 revenue and USD 0.83 Billion.

Europe

Revenue of USD 0.59 Billion in 2025 makes this the third-largest regional market, on 20.0% of the total.

Competitive Landscape

The thermal interface materials market for AI data centers is led by a group of established chemical and materials manufacturers rather than a single dominant supplier. Competition centers on formulation intellectual property and additive packages, since thermal conductivity gains at the die and package level come from proprietary filler chemistries rather than commodity blending. OEM qualification is the second axis: hyperscale server and GPU vendors run multi-quarter approval cycles before a grease, pad, or liquid-metal formulation is listed against a specific socket, which locks in incumbent suppliers once approved. Feedstock integration and distribution depth matter most in commodity grease and pad categories, where formulators compete on price and regional blending reach, while technical application support carries more weight in premium liquid-metal and phase-change formats that require on-site qualification engineering. Named suppliers active in this market include Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, 3M Company, Dow Inc., Honeywell International Inc., Parker Hannifin Corporation, Laird Performance Materials/DuPont, Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd., Momentive Performance Materials Inc., Fujipoly America Corporation, and Indium Corporation.

Strategic Outlook

Metal-based and phase-change interface materials targeting sub-1mm die-to-cold-plate gaps represent the clearest whitespace through 2035, benefiting formulators that can pass hyperscale reliability testing for gallium-based and indium-based chemistries. Realizing this depends on liquid-cooling infrastructure scaling in step with next-generation accelerator TDPs.

By 2035, the material mix is expected to shift decisively toward metal-based and phase-change formats at the die level as accelerator power density outpaces what polymer-carried greases can dissipate, while grease and pad volumes hold share in lower-power server and networking components.

Thermal Interface Materials for AI Data Centers Market Report Scope