Dive Brief:
- Schneider Electric has signed an agreement to acquire a controlling interest in liquid cooling and thermal management solutions company Motivair Corp., the company announced Thursday.
- Under the terms of the transaction, Schneider Electric will buy an initial 75% equity stake in Motivair for an all-cash consideration of $850 million and expects to acquire the remaining 25% of non-controlling interests in 2028, according to a news release. When the deal closes, Motivair will join Schneider Electric’s energy management group and continue to be run by President and CEO Rich Whitmore from its headquarters in Buffalo, New York, per the release.
- Motivair’s liquid cooling portfolio complements the value proposition of Schneider's data center cooling business and “further strengthens our prominent position in Data Center build out from Grid to Chip and from Chip to Chiller,” Schneider Electric CEO Peter Herweck said in a statement.
Dive Insight:
The rise of generative AI and large language models has driven the demand for more powerful computing capabilities, which in turn require more energy, Schneider Electric said in its release.
Traditional air cooling alone is not sufficient to handle the higher levels of heat generated in new data centers architectures that require more efficient cooling systems, particularly liquid cooling, Schneider Electric said. Against that backdrop, liquid cooling is evolving as a solution particularly for hyperscalers and colocation data centers.
A case study by LiquidStack, Chemours and the Syska Hennessy Group in May highlighted the growing energy density of data center server racks and projected that rack densities of more than 100 kilowatts would likely become the norm over time and that air cooling is not suitable for server densities found in state-of-the-art data centers. Average rack densities at large hyperscale data center facilities could rise near 39% from an estimated average density of 36 kW per rack to 50 kW per rack by 2027, according to IDC projections cited by JLL in another study this year.
Motivair, which has more than 150 employees, provides “end-to-end cooling solutions and services” to hyperscale and colocation data centers, server original equipment manufacturers and original design manufacturers. Its offerings include coolant distribution units, rear door heat exchangers, cold plates, heat dissipation units and chillers for thermal management.
While the market for traditional air cooling systems continues to grow, the data center liquid cooling market is projected to cross $15 billion by 2028, marking a shift from niche to mainstream adoption, according to a July report by Dell ‘Oro Group.
“As the compute within data centers becomes higher-density, the need for effective cooling will grow,” Schneider Electric said, noting that the transaction with Motivair would strengthen its portfolio of direct-to-chip liquid cooling and high-capacity thermal solutions.
Schneider Electric, whose data center and networks end-market accounted for 21% of its fiscal year 2023 group orders, expects its double-digit growth since 2017 to continue through 2027, it said in the release. Revenue for Schneider Electric’s energy management segment in North America rose 15.5% year over year in the second quarter of 2024, driven by strong growth in its systems business attributable to its data center and infrastructure end-markets.
In March, Schneider Electric announced that it has earmarked $85 million to expand the manufacturing presence of its data center components at two plants in Tennessee. During its second-quarter earnings call July 31, Herweck said the energy management group is bolstering its manufacturing output to address continued supply chain challenges it faces in North America due to “unprecedented demand.”
The $850 million all-cash consideration values Moltivair at a mid-single digit multiple of projected fiscal year 2025 revenue, Schneider Electric said.
