Hygeine and water solutions leader Ecolab is making a bold, multibillion-dollar bet on the future of artificial intelligence infrastructure.

 

The company announced it has struck a definitive agreement to acquire CoolIT Systems, a fast-growing leader in liquid cooling technology for next-generation AI data centers, in a deal valued at approximately $4.75 billion in cash. 

 

The acquisition—one of Ecolab’s most significant moves into the digital infrastructure space—signals an aggressive push to dominate the rapidly evolving data center cooling market.

 

CoolIT, currently owned by funds managed by KKR, is expected to generate roughly $550 million in sales over the next year, underscoring its explosive growth trajectory. The deal is projected to immediately boost Ecolab’s performance, accelerating Global Water’s organic sales growth rate by 2% and lifting overall company growth by 1%.

 

At the center of the deal is a critical shift reshaping the tech world: the move from traditional air cooling to advanced liquid cooling systems capable of handling the immense heat generated by AI workloads. 

 

CoolIT specializes in exactly that—designing and manufacturing high-performance systems such as coolant distribution units, cold plates, and direct-to-chip cooling technologies that power some of the world’s largest hyperscale and colocation data centers.

 

With more than 25 years of experience, CoolIT has carved out a niche as a “pure-play” provider of end-to-end liquid cooling solutions—technology increasingly seen as mission-critical as AI computing demands surge.

 

Ecolab plans to fuse that engineering strength with its own expertise in water management, chemistry, digital monitoring, and global service operations. The result: an expanded “Cooling-as-a-Service” platform aimed at helping data centers boost performance, cut downtime, and reduce water consumption.

 

The price tag reflects the strategic importance of the deal. Ecolab is paying a steep premium—roughly 29 times expected EBITDA over the next 12 months and 24 times projected 2027 EBITDA—highlighting just how valuable liquid cooling has become in the AI era.

 

“AI is transforming the demands on data centers, and liquid cooling is one of the critical technologies that makes advanced computing possible,” said Christophe Beck, Ecolab chairman and chief executive officer. 

 

“By bringing together CoolIT’s engineered cooling technologies with Ecolab’s expertise in water, chemistry and digital service, we can provide our customers a complete cooling solution that improves performance and reliability while reducing water and energy use. 

 

"This acquisition expands our role in serving the AI ecosystem—semiconductor fabs that manufacture chips, power plants that fuel the chips, and data centers that utilize the chips—and positions Ecolab as the partner that the world’s largest technology companies rely on to grow responsibly and sustainably.”

 

With AI demand surging globally, the acquisition positions Ecolab squarely at the heart of the infrastructure powering the next wave of computing.