AI Data Center Cooling Strategy: U.S. Water Treatment Giant Bets 6 Trillion Won

Ecolab Inc. (NYSE: ECL) announced on March 20 that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire CoolIT Systems, an advanced liquid-cooling technology provider for AI data centers, for approximately $4.75 billion (about ₩6.4 trillion). Ecolab expects CoolIT to generate roughly $550 million in additional revenue (around ₩700 billion) over the next twelve months and to begin contributing to adjusted diluted earnings per share in 2028. The company is targeting deal close in the third quarter of fiscal 2026, while reaffirming its existing guidance for first-quarter and full-year 2026 adjusted EPS growth.

This acquisition expands Ecolab’s global high-tech and data-center cooling business into an integrated fluid-management and cooling platform tailored for AI workloads. Ecolab plans to finance the transaction with new debt, initially raising its net-debt-to-adjusted-EBITDA ratio to about 3.0x at closing, with a roadmap to reduce that ratio to 2.0x within two years.

On March 31, independent director Michael Larson acquired Ecolab common stock under the company’s director compensation and dividend reinvestment program. The transaction, valued at approximately $2.6 million (about ₩3.5 billion), was executed as a planned award under those programs rather than an open-market purchase.

Ecolab, a leading U.S. provider of water-management, hygiene and infection-prevention solutions, is listed on both the Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange. As AI-driven computing demand fuels rapid deployment of high-density servers, the market for liquid cooling—designed to overcome the limits of traditional air-cooling—is growing. Ecolab’s acquisition of CoolIT marks a strategic move by a legacy water-treatment and hygiene specialist into the data-center infrastructure space.