GPUs are so hot right now – literally and metaphorically – that they’re driving mergers and acquisitions in the datacenter cooling industry.

On Tuesday, aircon company Trane [1]acquired yet another liquid cooling startup, LiquidStack.

You may recall LiquidStack was one of the early players in two-phase immersion cooling, and first dunked servers into tanks of [2]dielectric liquids to cool down crypto mining operations.

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Microsoft was among the first to [4]trial LiquidStack's tech all the way back in 2021. Since then, the company has expanded its portfolio to include both single-phase and dual-phase immersion tanks, plus direct-to-chip cooling technologies, including a rather beefy 10MW modular coolant distribution unit (CDU).

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Under the arrangement announced today, LiquidStack will continue to operate under Trane's commercial HVAC business unit.

LiquidStack's tech adds to Trane’s existing datacenter physical infrastructure portfolio, a segment that has become big business in recent years as demand for AI and other hot infrastructure grows.

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By 2030, analyst firm Dell'Oro Group [8]predicts , the datacenter physical infrastructure market will exceed $80 billion. One of the fastest-growing segments in that market is thermal management, which the analyst outfit predicts will achieve a compound annual growth rate of 20 percent.

By the end of the decade, Dell'Oro says, direct-to-chip liquid cooling alone will be an $8 billion business driven in large part by the tech that featured in many Super Bowl ads: AI.

Liquid cooling is no longer a nice-to-have but a requirement to get the most out of the latest AI hardware, which makes thermal management tech a potential bottleneck for adoption.

[9]Microsoft touts far-off high-temperature superconducting tech for datacenter efficiency

[10]Microsoft plans more server farms, despite water worries

[11]SC25 gets heavy with mega power and cooling solutions

[12]Power crunch threatens to derail AI datacenter construction

LiquidStack isn't Trane's first foray into liquid cooling. Back in December 2025, the company [13]snapped up Stellar Energy, which produced modular cooling plants and coolant distribution units for, among other things, datacenters.

But these are only the latest in a string of datacenter physical infrastructure M&A kicked off by the AI boom. In late 2024, Schneider Electric [14]acquired a 75 percent controlling interest in liquid cooling vendor Motivair with plans to purchase the remaining 25 percent by 2028.

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Roughly a year prior, Vertiv [16]purchased CoolTera and almost immediately sent the company's manufacturing line into overdrive increasing production of CDUs by [17]45x .

Trane expects to close the acquisition of LiquidStack early this year. ®

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[1] https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260209846233/en/Trane-Technologies-to-Acquire-LiquidStack-to-Accelerate-EndtoEnd-Data-Center-Thermal-Management-Solutions

[2] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/25/immersion_cooling_dielectric_liquid_market_concentration/

[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aYwM8hlWRpXa-EiSsOldPgAAAE4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[4] https://www.sdxcentral.com/news/is-boiling-servers-in-refrigerant-the-key-to-greener-data-centers/

[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aYwM8hlWRpXa-EiSsOldPgAAAE4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aYwM8hlWRpXa-EiSsOldPgAAAE4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aYwM8hlWRpXa-EiSsOldPgAAAE4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[8] https://www.delloro.com/news/data-center-physical-infrastructure-market-to-surpass-80-billion-by-2030/

[9] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/10/microsoft_high_temperature_superconductors_hopium/

[10] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/28/microsoft_more_server_farms/

[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/20/heavy_industry_invades_sc25/

[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/05/supply_chain_woes_and_power/

[13] https://investors.tranetechnologies.com/news-and-events/news-releases/news-release-details/2025/Trane-Technologies-to-Acquire-Stellar-Energy-Digital-Business/default.aspx

[14] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/17/schneider_850m_stake_motivair/

[15] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aYwM8hlWRpXa-EiSsOldPgAAAE4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[16] https://www.vertiv.com/en-emea/about/news-and-insights/news-releases/vertiv-acquisition-of-cooltera-ltd-boosts-liquid-cooling-portfolio/

[17] https://s205.q4cdn.com/554782763/files/doc_financials/2023/q4/Vertiv-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-2023-Results-Presentation.pdf

[18] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/