Vertiv has completed its acquisition of ThermoKey, an Italian provider of heat rejection and heat-exchange technologies, expanding its thermal management portfolio as demand accelerates for cooling infrastructure supporting AI factories and high-density data centers. The deal strengthens Vertiv’s manufacturing, engineering, and thermal systems capabilities across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).
The acquisition adds ThermoKey’s portfolio of heat exchangers, dry coolers, and technologies designed to support low-global-warming-potential (GWP) and natural refrigerants. Vertiv already incorporates ThermoKey technologies into selected cooling products. By bringing the company fully into its organization, Vertiv aims to offer more integrated thermal architectures spanning the complete cooling chain, from liquid cooling systems through heat rejection infrastructure. ThermoKey, founded in 1991 and headquartered in Rivarotta, Italy, brings more than three decades of engineering expertise and in-house manufacturing capabilities.
The transaction comes as AI infrastructure deployments drive unprecedented increases in rack power densities, creating new demands for advanced thermal management. ThermoKey will continue operating from its Italian facilities, which will serve as a manufacturing, engineering, and support hub within Vertiv’s global operations. ThermoKey CEO Giuseppe Visentini will remain in his leadership role to support business continuity and future expansion.
• Expands Vertiv’s heat rejection and heat-exchange technology portfolio
• Strengthens manufacturing and engineering presence across EMEA
• Adds expertise in dry coolers and low-GWP refrigerant technologies
• Supports integrated thermal solutions for AI factories and high-density data centers
• ThermoKey operations in Italy remain a strategic engineering and manufacturing center
• ThermoKey CEO Giuseppe Visentini continues to lead the business
“Customers are scaling AI infrastructure at an unprecedented pace, and thermal performance is now a critical enabler of capacity and efficiency,” said Giordano Albertazzi, CEO of Vertiv. “With ThermoKey, we are strengthening our capabilities to deliver differentiated, integrated, high-performance heat rejection solutions that help customers deploy faster, operate more efficiently, and scale with confidence.”
🌐 Analysis: Cooling infrastructure has emerged as one of the most critical bottlenecks in AI data center construction as GPU clusters push rack power densities far beyond traditional enterprise deployments. Heat rejection systems, dry coolers, and liquid cooling technologies increasingly determine how quickly operators can bring new AI capacity online.
🌐 Analysis: Vertiv has been expanding its AI-focused thermal management portfolio through both product development and acquisitions. The ThermoKey transaction strengthens Vertiv’s position against competitors such as Schneider Electric, Johnson Controls, and Trane Technologies, while expanding its ability to deliver end-to-end cooling architectures for next-generation AI facilities.
| Company Profile: Vertiv Holdings Co. (NYSE: VRT) | |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Westerville, Ohio, USA |
| CEO | Giordano (Gio) Albertazzi |
| Founded / Roots | Founded in 2016 (Formed when Platinum Equity acquired Emerson Network Power for $4B) |
| Global Scale | ~34,000 employees | Operations in 130+ countries | 300+ global service centers |
| Core Data Center Portfolio |
Thermal Management: Liebert liquid cooling platforms, Direct-to-Chip (D2C) cold plates, CDU (Cooling Distribution Units), dry coolers, and chilled water systems. Power Management: High-density AC/DC power distribution, large-scale Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS), busways, and 54V to 100V DC GPU-pod power architectures. Integrated Solutions: Prefabricated modular data center suites, smart enclosures, and server-side management software. |
| AI Infrastructure Role | Provides the end-to-end “grid-to-chip” and “chip-to-heat-reuse” physical layer. Vertiv specializing in managing extreme density bottlenecks (handling 100kW+ rack loads) for massive AI factories and GPU clusters. |
| Strategic Acquisitions |
• Strategic Thermal Labs (April 2026): Added advanced server-side liquid cooling & cold-plate designs. • ThermoKey (June 2026): Finalized acquisition to scale up advanced dry coolers and heat-rejection hardware in EMEA. • BMarko Structures (2026): Expanded structural engineering capacity for modular/prefabricated data centers. • PurgeRite: Acquired to dominate complex fluid management and filtration services for liquid-cooled deployments. |
| 2026 Milestones | Announced a $50 million domestic manufacturing expansion in Ironton and Westerville, Ohio, to boost liquid-cooling production by 45% to address intense backlogs from cloud and hyperscale providers. |