Asetek, the creator of the all-in-one (AIO) liquid cooler, has just seen a 40% drop in its share value in a single day. That's nightmare fuel for most companies and it's not all that surprising. The company said prior to the drop that it now expects lower than expected demand for liquid coolers for the second half of 2024, resulting in a “significant decline in Group revenue.”

“Asetek A/S has received updated purchase forecasts from a number of the company’s largest OEM customers,” the company said on June 11 (via Overclock3D). “Based on these new forecasts, the expected increase in demand in the second half of 2024 of the company’s liquid cooling products may not materialize.”

The company has suspended its guidance for 2024, effectively throwing its hands in the air and saying it isn't sure what the future may hold.

The company is publicly traded on the Nasdaq Copenhagen. When the news reached the exchange, the company's share price fell 40% in a single day—from 5.02 DKK to 3.00 DKK. It's declined slightly further since. Today it's sitting at 2.62 DKK.

You might not know Asetek as a brand but you've likely used one of its products. The company invented the all-in-one (AIO) liquid cooler, and it's been responsible for making many popular models around today, including those from Thermaltake, Lian Li, NZXT, Phanteks, Asus ROG and more. It also works with system builders, including Alienware, iBuyPower, Falcon, and Overclockers UK.

It's these component makers and system builders that generate the demand for Asetek products, and they're just not biting right now. The PC market is in a bit of a slump, which most firms are hoping AI will drag them out of. However, most 'AI ready' devices today, such as Copilot+ PCs, are laptops today.

Asetek's liquid coolers are primarily aimed at desktops, though liquid cooling is also used in datacentres.

“The management team and board of directors of Asetek will consider the long- and short-term consequences of the weakened and uncertain market situation. The assessment today is that the negative trend in revenue may continue into 2025.”

Though whether this is a general malaise for liquid coolers in the wider market or one more localised to Asetek is not entirely clear.

We spoke to one hardware manufacturer at Computex and were told it has invested in a new cooler without Asetek due to Asetek's prices. Though with customers of all sizes, prices likely vary a lot. Ultimately Asetek's cooling business is tied to PC demand, and that's been in the doldrums for a while.

A new generation could spark fresh interest in PCs, however, and we are expecting both AMD Ryzen 9000-series CPUs in the very near future and Intel's Arrow Lake CPUs later in the year. Also, Nvidia and AMD are surely, surely, working on new graphics cards to bless our gaming PCs with at some point in the near future. That's why this slump towards the tail-end of 2024 is a bit surprising—there's actually heaps of new hardware coming out to bolster demand. 

Or maybe everyone is just really excited for Noctua's pump-less AIO concept? Nah, that's miles off being a finished product yet.

Asetek also designs sim racing gear, its SimSports division, which it says is doing just fine and on track. So it's not all bad news.