Investments signal a heated liquid cooling race

Although it is challenging to accurately measure (let alone forecast) global spending on data center infrastructure, current levels are undoubtedly highly buoyant by historical standards. Gargantuan investments in AI compute account for the bulk of current and forecast spending growth, and the broader view also indicates solid baseline demand for generic compute. Server CPU shipments are a useful proxy for the overall health of the data center industry — and processor sales are seeing record levels. Both AMD and Intel report robust demand and expect further growth across all segments due to an ongoing cycle of server technology refresh and capacity expansion.

In such a hot market environment, more businesses are emboldened to buy or invest in other companies as they place bets on continued growth. Transaction activity in the past year is a testament to this: specifically, the surge in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in cooling systems and services. Uptime Intelligence identified at least 14 transactions (either investment or M&A) in the data center cooling segment from November 2024 to the start of November 2025, with six transactions made since September. Between October 2023 and October 2024, Uptime Intelligence recorded only two similar deals.