Ecolab has completed its acquisition of Canada’s advanced liquid-cooling company, CoolIT Systems, for approximately $4.75 billion, deepening its presence in the rapidly expanding AI infrastructure market and positioning itself to capitalise on growing demand for advanced data centre cooling technologies.
The US-based water, hygiene and infection prevention solutions provider said the transaction closed earlier than expected and expands its capabilities across the AI value chain, from water used in semiconductor manufacturing to cooling systems designed for high-density AI data centres.
“At the heart of AI is water. We need water to produce chips, power chips, and cool chips,” Christophe Beck, Chairman and CEO of Ecolab, said in a statement. “Ecolab is now uniquely positioned to offer end-to-end solutions across the full AI value chain, from ultra-pure water to produce the most advanced chips, to high-performing water systems for optimised power generation, to direct liquid cooling for the most powerful AI data centres.”
The acquisition comes as AI workloads drive a fundamental shift in data centre design. Traditional air-cooling systems are increasingly struggling to handle the heat generated by advanced AI processors, prompting operators to adopt liquid cooling technologies to improve efficiency and reduce power consumption.
CoolIT is a key supplier of direct liquid cooling systems used in high-performance computing environments. The company works with leading chipmakers, including NVIDIA and AMD, whose latest AI accelerators are significantly increasing power densities inside servers. As hyperscalers and cloud providers race to deploy AI infrastructure, liquid cooling has emerged as a critical technology for supporting next-generation GPU clusters.
“NVIDIA has collaborated with Ecolab and CoolIT across a broad range of liquid‑cooling initiatives, including coolant qualification, coolant health monitoring, cooling infrastructure development, and next‑generation AI factory technologies,” said Ali Heydari, Technical Director and Engineer at NVIDIA, and Saket Karajgikar, Senior Engineering Manager and ASME Fellow at NVIDIA.
The company’s year-to-date sales have grown by more than 100%, reflecting surging demand for AI-related cooling solutions.
“The world’s demand for AI is accelerating, driving exponential growth in semiconductors, data centres, energy and water demand. Ecolab’s acquisition of CoolIT positions us to help deliver the growth needed while advancing resource efficiency and sustainability,” Beck added.
Following the acquisition, Ecolab said its Global High Tech business has reached approximately $1.5 billion in annualised 2026 sales, up from around $150 million in 2021. The company is targeting $4 billion in annual revenue from the segment by 2030.
Your reaction
Discussion
What's your take on this story?
No comments yet — be the first to share your view.