Ecolab Closes CoolIT $4.75bn Acquisition to Scale AI Cooling

Ecolab has finalised its acquisition of CoolIT Systems for approximately US$4.75bn. The transaction gives the water technologies firm direct access to the data centre market through CoolIT’s liquid cooling architecture.

The deal closed earlier than anticipated, completing a strategic move to capitalise on accelerating demand for liquid cooling within AI infrastructure.

CoolIT has recorded year-to-date sales growth exceeding 100%. The acquisition merges Ecolab’s industrial water treatment background with CoolIT’s specialised hardware. 

The combined entity targets the entire AI value chain, providing ultra-pure water for semiconductor manufacturing, water systems for power generation and direct liquid cooling for AI data centres.

Integrating liquid cooling systems

The integration of both companies will yield new hardware and software combinations aimed at the high-performance computing sector.

Ecolab intends to launch a combined product at the Supercomputing conference in Chicago in November 2026. The planned release is an end-to-end 3D TRASAR cooling platform that integrates CoolIT’s cooling distribution units and cold plates with Ecolab’s digital optimisation software and advanced cooling fluids.

This platform aims to optimise water, compute performance and power at scale. Operators will receive real-time visibility into system metrics to reduce cooling power demand and increase power efficiency. The technology relies on closed-loop systems to push data centre facilities toward a near-zero water footprint, supporting advanced architectures like NVIDIA Vera Rubin and Grace Blackwell.

Discussing the acquisition on LinkedIn, Christophe Beck, Chairman, President and CEO of Ecolab, says: “CoolIT is a global leader in direct-to-chip liquid cooling for high-density data centres, with deep expertise, strong partnerships across the AI ecosystem and a world-class team.

“AI is reshaping how the world operates and competes. As AI infrastructure rapidly expands, so does the need to operate it more efficiently and at scale. Water is at the heart of it all. It is needed to produce chips, power and cool them.”

Collaborating with hyperscale customers

Ecolab and CoolIT will continue working alongside hyperscale operators to support next-generation AI data centre designs. The objective is to increase AI deployment speeds while managing power and water consumption.

The companies already hold established relationships with major hardware manufacturers. NVIDIA Technical Director and Distinguished Engineer Ali Heydari, alongside Saket Karajgikar, Senior Engineering Manager and ASME Fellow at NVIDIA, say: “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.

“Through collaborations spanning NVIDIA engineering labs, research programmes and large‑scale AI infrastructure deployments, Ecolab and CoolIT have consistently demonstrated strong technical expertise, innovation and responsiveness.”

Financial targets and EPS guidance

The acquisition significantly alters the financial trajectory of Ecolab’s Global High-Tech division. In 2021, the business unit generated roughly US$150m in annual sales. Following the additions of Ovivo and CoolIT, the division is approaching US$1.5bn in annualised sales for 2026. Ecolab has set a target for the Global High-Tech business to reach US$4bn in annual sales by 2030 with operating income margins of 25%.

This division represents Ecolab’s primary growth driver. Growing over 25% annually, it is projected to add more than two percentage points to total annual sales growth.

Highlighting the environmental strategy, Christophe says: “With Ecolab’s breakthrough solutions across fabs, power and data centres, AI can now scale more rapidly while respecting communities, the environment and natural resources. 

“With strong and consistent core businesses and new growth engines in high tech and life sciences that capture major new trends, we have never been better positioned to deliver on our growth commitments.

"We therefore remain confident in our ability to drive sustained organic revenue growth of 5% to 7%, operating income margins well beyond 20%, and consistent EPS growth of 12% to 15% for the years to come."

Ecolab has updated its 2026 EPS guidance to reflect the CoolIT transaction. 

Taking into account short-term impacts from non-cash amortisation and financing costs, the company expects its 2026 adjusted diluted EPS to sit between $8.03 and $8.23. This represents a growth of 7% to 9% compared to 2025. During the second half of 2026, Ecolab expects organic sales growth to accelerate to between 6% and 7%.

Addressing environmental constraints

Hardware and cooling vendors are actively adjusting their supply chains to balance compute density with resource efficiency.

“With CoolIT, we can now deliver fully integrated, end-to-end solutions that maximise data centre performance while reducing water and energy use,” says Christophe on LinkedIn. 

“The world is asking the right questions about how data centres are built, especially around water and energy. The answer is not to slow innovation. It is to build it better."