Submer, Hammer partner to expand UK AI liquid cooling

Submer has signed a UK partnership with Hammer Distribution, giving resellers and systems integrators a local route to buy and deploy Submer's liquid cooling products and related services as demand grows for AI and high-performance computing infrastructure.

The agreement provides access to Submer's liquid cooling portfolio across the UK and Europe, alongside design, deployment and lifecycle support delivered through the channel. The companies are positioning the partnership around rising compute density and tighter energy constraints in UK data centres.

UK operators have also faced increased attention on resilience and national importance. Data centres have been classified as Critical National Infrastructure, and sector capacity is forecast to nearly double by 2028, according to figures cited by Submer.

Market pressures

AI training and inference workloads are increasing power draw in data centres and placing new demands on cooling. Liquid cooling circulates fluid around heat-producing components rather than relying on air, removing heat more efficiently than traditional air cooling, which can become a limiting factor in dense compute environments.

The UK has been a major focus for developers and investors. Oxford Economics estimates more than £40bn has been invested since 2023 across the UK data centre market. Operators have expanded capacity to meet demand from cloud providers, enterprises and public sector organisations running data-intensive workloads.

Alongside energy availability, sovereignty has become more prominent in infrastructure planning. Organisations in regulated industries have faced scrutiny over where data is stored and processed, and who controls the systems involved. Vendors and channel partners have increasingly framed deployments around domestic governance and local operational control.

Submer described the UK as a strategically important market for AI infrastructure. "The UK is one of Europe's most strategically important AI infrastructure markets. Strengthening our local partnerships ensures organisations can deploy energy-efficient, high-density environments while maintaining control over where their data is processed and governed," said Manpreet Bath, vice president for commercial engagement.

Channel route

Hammer Distribution is adding Submer to its UK offering as the channel builds practices around AI infrastructure. The distributor said the partnership will sit within its AI WORKS programme, which it plans to launch in early April.

Hammer linked the move to changing data centre requirements and the limits of conventional approaches. "As AI workloads accelerate across Europe, the channel faces growing demand for high-density, energy-efficient infrastructure," said Adam Blackwell, director of AI, server, and advanced technology. "Traditional air cooling is no longer sufficient, making liquid and cooling increasingly relevant beyond hyperscale. Hammer takes a consultative, ecosystem-led approach to AI infrastructure. Through our partnership with Submer, now part of Hammer's AI WORKS programme launching in early April, we strengthen local enablement and deployment capability, empowering European partners to deliver scalable, sustainable AI-ready solutions."

The partnership targets deployments outside hyperscale operators. Many enterprises and public sector bodies are building smaller AI clusters and upgrading existing data centres. These sites often face tighter physical constraints and have less flexibility for power and cooling upgrades. A channel-led model can package equipment, services and integration work for customers without in-house data centre engineering teams.

Product scope

Submer describes its offering as an end-to-end AI infrastructure stack that includes liquid cooling systems, monitoring software, and data centre design and build services, as well as GPU cloud services. The agreement with Hammer focuses on expanding access to liquid cooling, alongside implementation and lifecycle support delivered through the distributor and its partner network.

Submer says its technology is designed for zero direct water consumption and that liquid cooling can reduce cooling-related energy use compared with air-cooled approaches. In recent years, the water footprint of digital infrastructure has drawn more attention from policymakers and local planning authorities, particularly in areas where utilities capacity is constrained.

Submer is expanding its UK presence as part of a wider investment plan, adding local technical and commercial roles. The company said it wants more in-market expertise for customer engagement as AI infrastructure demand spreads across sectors including financial services, healthcare and higher education.

Hammer, which focuses on enterprise technology distribution across servers, storage, networking and infrastructure, uses specialist teams in the UK and Europe for advanced technology areas. The Submer partnership adds liquid cooling to a portfolio that has increasingly shifted toward AI-related hardware, integration services and the infrastructure components needed for dense compute environments.

Both companies expect more channel partners to seek guidance on cooling design as customers plan new build and retrofit projects. The agreement leaves room for Hammer to bundle Submer systems with adjacent infrastructure, such as servers and networking, and to offer deployment services through its ecosystem as the AI WORKS programme rolls out.