Inside Vertiv's Thermokey Acquisition for Advanced Cooling

AI workloads are pushing data centres towards ever-greater power densities.

As a result, cooling has become one of the industry's most valuable commodities.

Against this backdrop, Vertiv has completed its acquisition of Italian heat-exchange specialist ThermoKey, in a move designed to strengthen its position in one of the fastest-growing segments of the data centre market.

The deal brings ThermoKey's heat rejection and heat-exchange technologies into Vertiv's portfolio, expanding the company's manufacturing and engineering capabilities across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

It also deepens Vertiv's ability to provide end-to-end thermal solutions for AI factories and high-density data centres.

Building a bigger thermal toolkit

Demand for advanced cooling technologies has surged alongside the growth of AI infrastructure.

As operators deploy their AI-intensive systems, thermal management has become a critical factor in determining both facility performance and long-term scalability.

Vertiv says the acquisition enhances its ability to deliver integrated thermal architectures that support multiple generations of compute infrastructure.

ThermoKey's portfolio includes heat-exchange technologies, dry coolers and solutions compatible with low-global-warming-potential and natural refrigerants.

The two companies are already familiar with each other. Vertiv currently incorporates ThermoKey technologies into selected thermal management solutions, making the acquisition a natural extension of an existing relationship.

"Customers are scaling AI infrastructure at an unprecedented pace, and thermal performance is now a critical enabler of capacity and efficiency," says Giordano Albertazzi, CEO at Vertiv.

"With ThermoKey, we are strengthening our capabilities to deliver differentiated, integrated, high-performance heat rejection solutions that help customers deploy faster, operate more efficiently, and scale with confidence."

Supporting AI infrastructure growth

Founded in 1991, ThermoKey has more than three decades of experience designing and manufacturing heat-exchange systems.

The company has established relationships with OEMs and system integrators, providing Vertiv with additional expertise as demand for AI-ready infrastructure continues to grow.

For data centre operators, the acquisition expands the range of thermal technologies available through Vertiv while increasing manufacturing capacity in a region seeing continued investment in digital infrastructure.

The ThermoKey site in Rivarotta, Italy, will remain a key centre for manufacturing, engineering and customer support following the acquisition.

Giuseppe Visentini will also continue in his role as CEO of ThermoKey, maintaining leadership continuity as the business becomes part of Vertiv.

"Joining Vertiv means bringing our heat-exchange expertise into a complete, integrated thermal chain that serves high-density data centres," he said.

"We share Vertiv's engineering rigor and customer focus.

"ThermoKey joins Vertiv on a path of sustained growth, and from Italy we will continue to build on that momentum and contribute to the strength of the group across EMEA and around the world."

The acquisition reflects the growing importance of thermal infrastructure in modern data centre design, especially as AI deployments drive demand for sophisticated cooling systems and integrated heat-management strategies.