Private equity firm KKR is said to be working with financial advisers on a potential sale of CoolIT Systems, a maker of liquid cooling solutions for data centers, with the deal value possibly exceeding $3 billion, according to people familiar with the matter cited by the Financial Times.
Sources told the report that the sale process is in its early stages and that there is no certainty it will culminate in a transaction. Multiple buyers have reportedly been identified as prospective bidders in preliminary outreach.
Requests for comment to KKR and CoolIT Systems made outside regular business hours were not immediately answered, the report noted. The report also said the matter could not be immediately verified by Reuters.
Market demand for higher-density computing capacity - driven by high-powered artificial intelligence and cloud servers - is creating intense cooling requirements. These systems consume substantial power and generate heat at levels that many conventional air-cooling approaches struggle to dissipate effectively.
That growing need for efficient thermal management has helped propel deal activity across the data center ecosystem as companies and investors move to expand capacity and address power and cooling constraints. CoolIT Systems, per information on its website, focuses on the design, development and large-scale manufacture of liquid cooling technologies tailored for AI and other high-performance computing applications.
KKR acquired CoolIT Systems in 2023. The timing and terms of that acquisition were not elaborated on in the recent reporting about the potential sale. The current discussions, as described in the report, remain preliminary and do not guarantee a transaction will be completed.
Context and implications
The reported outreach to potential buyers and engagement of advisers indicate an active marketing phase, but participants cautioned that the process is at an early stage. Any eventual transaction size and structure would depend on the level of bidder interest and the outcomes of formal due diligence and negotiations.
For now, the situation is one to watch for market participants focused on infrastructure, enterprise IT, and sectors supporting AI and cloud computing, which are sensitive to capacity and cooling solutions.