Carrier invests in data centre liquid cooling
20th April 2024
USA: Carrier Ventures, the investment arm of Carrier Global Corporation, has entered into a partnership with US thermal engineering company Strategic Thermal Labs (STL) to advance data centre liquid cooling.
Under the investment and technology deal, Carrier says it will leverage STL’s groundbreaking technology for a liquid cooling solution for data centres – a market which is expected to approach $3bn to $5bn by 2028.
Founded in 2014 near Austin, Texas, Strategic Thermal Labs is a heat transfer research and development company dedicated to solving heat and mass transfer problems across a wide spectrum of industries. It is said to have particular expertise in data centre liquid cooling.
Strategic Thermal Labs, LLC (STL) STL has long been trusted by the world’s largest server manufacturers and data centre operators for its invaluable and practical insights into both contemporary and future data centre cooling technologies.
“Direct-to-chip liquid cooling is significantly more efficient than traditional cooling methods and critical to data centres of the future as AI and other technologies continue to fuel the global demand for high-density computing,” said Ajay Agrawal, Carrier’s senior vice president, global services, business development and chief strategy officer. “Together with STL, we will help to significantly reduce data centre energy consumption, while also providing customers with a highly scalable solution.”
As part of the financial investment, Carrier will receive a board seat in STL, along with exclusivity for a highly differentiated solution.
The investment in STL follows Carrier’s acquisition of leading data centre infrastructure management provider Nlyte in 2021. Carrier’s Nlyte DCIM tools share detailed information between HVAC equipment, power systems and servers/workloads that run within data centres, providing unprecedented transparency and control of the infrastructure for improved uptime.
“Data centre power consumption is surging at unprecedented rates with a significant portion of that power increase belonging to inefficient cooling technology,” said STL president Austin Shelnutt. “The world needs highly innovative cooling solutions that can enable the next generation of computer infrastructure while using far less energy in the process.”
