Schneider Electric strengthens its cooling portfolio through the acquisition of Motivair

Schneider Electric, the French energy and automation specialist, is investing approximately 850 million USD to acquire a majority stake in the US-based Motivair Corp. This strategic initiative aims to expand the rapidly growing portfolio in the field of liquid cooling for high-performance data centers. The acquisition is expected to close in the coming quarters, with Schneider securing a 75% stake in Motivair and planning to acquire the remaining shares by 2028. With this acquisition, Schneider Electric strengthens its capabilities in liquid cooling directly adjacent to chips and in high-capacity thermal systems. The enormous demand for more efficient cooling solutions is fueled by the current boom in generative AI technologies and large language models, such as Chat-GPT. These require innovative approaches like liquid cooling, as traditional air-cooling methods reach their limits with increasing heat generation. Motivair, headquartered in Buffalo, New York, manufactures units that pump coolant at high pressure in close proximity to the chips, ensuring efficient cooling of the servers. Peter Herweck, CEO of Schneider Electric, emphasizes the significance of this merger and highlights the continuous double-digit growth of the data and network markets, which already accounted for 21% of Schneider’s orders in 2023—a revenue of approximately 8 billion euros. The demand for data centers is growing worldwide, with energy consumption in the US alone potentially tripling by 2030, which, according to estimates by Goldman Sachs, requires additional generation capacity of about 47 gigawatts. Despite this positive market dynamic, Schneider, according to Herweck, is not currently seeking further large deals in the data center segment but remains open to emerging opportunities. The rumors about a potential acquisition of Bentley Systems by Schneider ended this year without result.