The Rise of North American AI Computing Power: Munters Secures Multiple Large Liquid Cooling Orders, Accelerating the Era of GW-scale Liquid Cooling

Recently, Munters, a leading enterprise in data center HVAC and thermal management, announced via its official channels that its Data Center Technology (DCT) division has secured a major new order from a colocation data center operator in North America. The order is valued at approximately 2 billion Swedish kronor, equivalent to around 1.485 billion yuan. This follows a 2.1 billion Swedish kronor liquid cooling contract secured in January 2026, marking another key cooperation within a short period and reflecting the company’s solid competence in liquid cooling solutions for AI data centers. Centered on the construction of AI-oriented facilities, this project will adopt a customized cooling platform configuration, mainly including high-capacity Cooling Distribution Units (CDU) and Computer Room Air Handlers (CRAH) installed above server racks. The complete delivery will be based on modular AI cooling solutions. This order has been booked in Munters’ Q2 2026 order portfolio, with relevant delivery arrangements to be carried out step by step going forward.

Klas Forsström, President and CEO of Munters, stated: “The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence and high-performance computing has driven growing demand for new digital infrastructure. Such needs continue to expand steadily. This project fully demonstrates how tailored high-efficiency cooling solutions can bring distinct business advantages, as well as our capability to deliver custom solutions on a large scale.”

Stefan Aspman, President of the Data Center Technology business and Group Vice President of Munters, added: “This new order further validates our technical expertise in delivering integrated air and liquid cooling solutions for high-density AI facilities. The fully modular design enables effective cooling for containerized AI equipment, allowing customers to deploy AI infrastructure rapidly and on a large scale to keep pace with rising computing demands.”

Munters is a Sweden-originated enterprise specialized in environmental and thermal management technologies. With decades of experience in air handling and energy-efficient cooling, the company has built more than 20 years of engineering and product expertise within the data center industry. Unlike manufacturers that only focus on standalone cooling equipment, Munters focuses on system-level thermal management, covering the full cooling chain from outdoor cold sources to indoor heat dissipation, which supports its steady development in liquid cooling for AI data center scenarios.

As GPU power consumption continues to rise, traditional air cooling gradually meets performance limitations. In response, Munters has prioritized liquid cooling as a key development direction for its data center business, shifting from air-centric cooling to a hybrid architecture combining air and liquid solutions. Its liquid cooling layout centers on system distribution, heat exchange and overall integration, rather than focusing merely on chips or cold plates. The LCX series cooling distribution unit features a modular and scalable structure, supporting heat dissipation ranging from hundreds of kilowatts to megawatts. It is compatible with single-phase cold plates, two-phase cooling and other mainstream technologies, and meets the requirements of large-scale AI clusters in terms of stability and daily operation. Munters has also cooperated with Zutacore to launch two-phase CDU products, further enriching its liquid cooling product lineup.

According to industry analysts, hyper-scale data center clients are expected to reach a total AI capital expenditure (Capex) of 700 billion US dollars in 2026, with the North American market accounting for approximately 630 billion US dollars. Around 15 GW of new construction demand for AI data centers is projected, led by major cloud service providers including xAI, OpenAI and Meta. The growing demand for AI data centers in North America has created ample market opportunities for technology suppliers such as Munters and Vertiv.

Leading technology enterprises in North America are actively expanding their GW-level AI data center layouts. xAI, the artificial intelligence startup founded by Elon Musk, has acquired a third building to build another large-scale data center, aiming to boost its training computing power to nearly 2 GW in 2026 to support the deployment of one million Blackwell chips. Meta has launched its Prometheus super cluster with a capacity above 1 GW, which is scheduled for official operation in 2026. The company also plans to complete a 2 GW data center in the same year, with a 5 GW cluster under long-term planning, and mainly adopts NVIDIA Blackwell chips for hardware deployment. In September last year, NVIDIA announced a potential investment of up to 100 billion US dollars in OpenAI, supplying millions of AI chips for its next-generation data center development. The joint project will exceed 10 GW in total energy consumption, and the first GW-scale data center is set to be delivered in 2026. Meanwhile, the Stargate initiative jointly launched by Microsoft, SoftBank and OpenAI will also accelerate data center construction throughout 2026.

At the 2026 Google Cloud Next event, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced that the company’s capital expenditure for 2026 will range from 175 billion to 185 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of about 91%. Most of the budget will be invested in AI infrastructure, covering servers, data center facilities, network equipment and self-developed TPU chips. An additional 3 to 4 GW of new data center capacity is expected, equipped with advanced NVIDIA chips and Google self-developed TPUs. Industry insiders mention that Munters’ continuous acquisition of large liquid cooling orders in North America reflects its solid technical capability and market recognition. Amid the steady expansion of AI computing power, liquid cooling has become a reliable solution for high-efficiency heat dissipation. With the continuous launch of GW-level liquid cooling projects in North America, the data center thermal management sector is stepping into an era with wide adoption of liquid cooling technology.

Jiayida (Suzhou) Fluid Power Technology Co., Ltd. focuses on providing one-stop liquid cooling fluid system solutions and services for data center scenarios. The product portfolio covers OCP-standard UQD, UQDB and BMQC quick disconnect couplings, water manifold assemblies, Continental EPDM hoses and hose assemblies, FF9 full-flow double interlock quick disconnect ball valves as an alternative to FD83 series products, API heat exchangers, Gates data center-dedicated EPDM hoses, as well as WIKA pressure gauges and sensors from Germany.