Ecolab expands direct-to-chip cooling portfolio

Water monitoring and treatment firm Ecolab has launched a new liquid cooling portfolio for data centers.

The company this week announced the launch of a fully integrated cooling program. The Cooling as a Service (CaaS) offering brings together a full suite of cooling management, integrating EcoLab’s 3D TRASAR technology for Direct-to-Chip Liquid Cooling into its new Coolant Distribution Unit (CDU).

CaaS incorporates water management technology, smart coolant distribution units, connected coolant, and the 3D TRASAR monitoring technology, all delivered through our expert service.

Founded in 1923 to sell carpet cleaning products, NYSE-listed Ecolab provides water treatment and monitoring products and services across industries, including food, healthcare, hospitality, and manufacturing.

The company, via its Nalco Water unit, offers 3D TRASAR water monitoring products for cooling water for cooling towers and chillers, and adiabatic cooling to optimize direct evaporative cooling systems. It launched a data center-centric version for liquid cooling earlier this year.

EticaAG launches in-rack immersion cooled battery systems for data centers

EticaAG, a provider of immersion-cooled Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), has launched a pair of immersion-cooled lithium-ion battery systems for data centers.

The company recently announced the launch of its new Fortis Series of products for data centers.

The Fortis Sidecar and Fortis 400 Rack are built on EticaAG’s proprietary immersion-cooled NMC (lithium-ion) platform. The company says they are the first commercial product line capable of serving both traditional UPS systems and DC-voltage rack architectures such as OCP Diablo 400.

Every battery cell in Fortis modules is fully immersed in Shell Certified Battery Dielectric Fluid - a non-conductive, non-toxic, and biodegradable liquid.

EticaAG said its LiquidShield immersion cooling and HazGuard gas-mitigation technologies eliminate ignition and toxic off-gassing risks, allowing NMC cells to operate safely inside the white space. HazGuard is a ventilation system that draws flammable and toxic gases out of the container in the event of a fire.

The Fortis Sidecar connects directly to the UPS DC bus. Each unit delivers up to 233kWh per rack, >330kW continuous, and up to 600kW peak output for short-duration surges. The system provides up to 30 minutes of runtime at 80 percent Depth of Discharge (DoD).

The Fortis 400 rack delivers ≈224kWh total energy and 1.74MW continuous / 2.48MW peak power, providing 45–90 seconds of ride-through at full rack load.

All Fortis Series systems will be manufactured in the United States, with initial availability expected in Q4 2026.

Vertiv launches immersion cooling pod

Vertiv has launched an immersion cooling tank.

The company has introduced its CoolCenter Immersion cooling system. The pods can support from 25kW to 240kW per system.

The pods range from 24U to 52U. They operate with a PUE of 1.08.

Each system includes an internal or external liquid tank, coolant distribution unit (CDU), temperature sensors, variable-speed pumps, and fluid piping. The pod includes dual power supplies and redundant pumps, as well as an integrated monitoring sensors, a 9-inch touchscreen, and building management system (BMS) connectivity.

With immersion cooling, servers are submerged in a dielectric fluid, which removes heat more effectively than air.

The coolant absorbs the heat and is then sent to the heat exchanger in the CDU. The heat is removed via plate heat exchanger transfers to the facility water loop, cooling the dielectric coolant. The cooled fluid goes back to the tank while the heated facility water is pumped out of the data center for heat reuse or rejection.

Vertiv wins Digital Realty contract in Italy

Vertiv has secured Digital Realty as a customer in Italy. The company will be supplying power and cooling infrastructure to Digital’s 3MW ROM1 facility in Rome. Set to go live in 2027, the data center will use free-cooling, and feature an “AI-ready” cooling system.

The deal builds on previous deployments with Digital Realty across European locations, including Paris, Madrid, and Amsterdam.

Vertiv is also working with Nextra across Africa, including the latter company’s 42MW data center in Nigeria. Vertiv is also set to work with Ezditek on data centers in Saudi Arabia.

Gates debuts environmentally-friendly liquid cooling hose

Cooling equipment specialist Gates has launched a new type of hose for liquid cooling systems, which it says is its most eco-friendly product yet.

The news comes as another vendor, GF, unveiled its latest cooling innovation, a polymer-based piping system to connect cooling distribution units (CDUs) and cold plates.

Gates said the new hose, named the Data Master Eco, “redefines liquid cooling performance through sustainable, efficient manufacturing.”

It is a halogen-free design that the firm said “offers a cleaner alternative that reduces environmental impact without compromising reliability or safety.”

The company added that it has streamlined its manufacturing process for Data Master Eco to cut energy use by approximately 75 percent compared with alternatives, eliminating natural gas, water, and steam traditionally used to cure and strengthen hose materials. The company's advanced curing method also reduces carbon emissions at the source and increases production efficiency.

The resulting hose is apparently 15 percent lighter than previous generations.

GF’s polymer pipes

Elsewhere, Swiss vendor GF has debuted LiquidCore, a system of polymer pipes that can be used to manage the flow of coolant from the CDU to the rack.

LiquidCore addresses the needs of liquid-cooled data centers by “combining high-performance polymer pipes, fittings, valves, actuation, instrumentation, engineered manifolds, jointing solutions, and precision design and pre-fabrication into one integrated solution,” the company said.

AI cloud firm Firmus raises AU$500m for data center roll out

Australian neocloud Firmus has raised AU$500m (US$327m) in equity for its data center rollout.

The company is aiming to expand its data center capacity to 1.6GW through 2028 under an initiative known as Project Southgate, for which the new funding will go towards.

Morgans acted as the sole lead manager for the equity raise, and Highbury Partnership acted as the financial advisor. The equity raise valued Firmus at AU$6bn (US$3.9bn).

Project Southgate is being conducted in partnership with local operator CDC Data Centres, with the two announcing their agreement in October 2025. Southgate’s first stages are under construction in Tasmania and Melbourne, with up to 150MW, representing 54,000 GB300s, delivered by mid-2026.

Founded in 2019, Firmus was initially focused on crypto and high-performance compute, specializing in immersion cooling, but today describes itself as a pure AI factory builder. The firm is backed by Nvidia and Ellerston Capital, as well as Regal Funds Management, Archibald Capital, and Tectonic Investment Management. In June, Firmus raised AU$280 million (US$180m) in preparation for going public on the Australian Stock Exchange.

Microsoft launches Atlanta Fairwater AI data center - two stories, no UPS or gen-sets

Microsoft has brought its data center in Atlanta, Georgia, online.

The facility is the company's second 'Fairwater' site, its new data center design that primarily uses a closed-loop liquid cooling system. The data center is connected to the first Fairwater site in Wisconsin with an AI Wide Area Network using dedicated fiber optic cables.

The facility can support around 140kW per rack and 1,360kW per row, and includes hundreds of thousands of the latest Nvidia GB200 and GB300 GPUs.

Each rack houses up to 72 Blackwell GPUs, connected via NVLink. They are then connected in pods and cluster by a two-tier, ethernet-based backend network with 800 Gbps GPU-to-GPU connectivity.

It has also worked with OpenAI, Nvidia, and others to define a custom networking protocol, Multi-Path Reliable Connected (MRC), to enable control and optimization of network routes.

The Atlanta Fairwater data center spans two stories, with Microsoft noting it made the decision specifically to reduce the distance between racks in three dimensions.

Thanks to Atlanta's reliable grid, Microsoft said that it was able to forgo on-site generation, UPS systems, and dual-corded distribution, allowing it to reduce time-to-market and operate at a lower cost.

As Microsoft brings more Fairwater facilities online, it plans to connect them all on the same network as a distributed supercomputer.

Schneider Electric and DataCentre UK deploy modular data centers for South Warwickshire NHS trust

Schneider Electric and DataCentre UK have deployed two modular data centers for South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust (SWFT) in the UK.

SWFT has opted to use Schneider's EcoStruxure data center offering, which features APC NetShelter racks, modular cooling units, APC power distribution units (PDUs), and Easy UPS systems.

Schneider Electric and DataCentre UK will design, build, and maintain two modular data centers for the trust under a £1.4 million ($1.84m) project to help improve the resiliency and efficiency of its IT systems.

Where the data centers are located has not been stated, but the trust spans four hospitals.

Schneider Electric offers several variations of modular data centers, from micro data centers to large-scale modular offerings. The scale of the deployment for the trust has not been shared.

DataCentre UK specializes in the design, installation, and maintenance of data centers for its customers. The company is an "elite partner" of Schneider Electric.

The NHS has previously made an effort to migrate to the cloud where appropriate and decommissioned the data centers previously hosting the NHS Spine system. Individual NHS Trusts and hospitals continue to operate their own data centers. In August 2022, NHS Lincolnshire Trust launched a £1 million ($1.2m) data center in Lincolnshire, the UK.

Earlier this month, it was announced that waste heat from data centers in the Milton Keynes area would be used to heat the city's hospital.

DartPoints announces 10MW data center expansion in South Carolina

US data center operator DartPoints is expanding its data center in South Carolina.

The company this week announced a $125 million expansion of its Greenville County facility from 2.5MW to 12.5MW, adding 88,000 square feet (8,175 sqm) of high-density space.

The Greenville facility will feature flexible cooling systems capable of supporting densities up to 120kW per rack.

GSP01, located in Greenville’s Global Business Park at 78 Global Drive, Suite 100, in Greenville, opened around 2007. The facility was developed and previously operated by Comporium Communications-backed Immedion, which merged with DartPoints in 2021.

DartPoints announced plans to expand a number of sites, including Greenville, in August, though it didn’t provide details on each location. The Greenville County council approved DartPoint’s request to expand the 78 Global Drive site in September.

“DartPoints’ growth in Greenville shows how innovation and infrastructure investment go hand in hand,” said South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster. “This project reinforces South Carolina’s position as a destination for technology-driven business and demonstrates how our state can support advanced digital operations with the power, talent, and collaboration they require to thrive.”

DayOne to expand CTP1 Thailand data center to 300MW, signs MoU with Amata for CTP2

APAC data center company DayOne plans to expand its data center in Thailand.

The company plans to eventually scale the Chonburi Tech Park (CTP) campus to 1GW, having broken ground on the first facility this March with 180MW of grid capacity.

The CTP1 data center, which is still under construction, will now grow to 300MW with an expansion on 16.3 acres of adjacent land.

DayOne also announced plans for CTP2, with the company signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with industrial estate provider Amata Corporation.

Alongside the MoU with the real estate division, DayOne entered into a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Amata B.Grimm Renewable Energy Company Limited (Ambre).

Ambre will supply renewable electricity generated by a 22kV floating-solar facility with an initial capacity of 42.5MWp within the Amata City Chonburi estate, starting in 2027.

DayOne is the former international business unit of Chinese data center firm GDS, and rebranded as an independent company earlier this year.

The company’s portfolio currently comprises more than 500MW of data center capacity in service and under construction, and more than 500MW held for future development across sites in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia (Johor), Indonesia (Batam), and Japan (Tokyo). The company recently broke ground on a site in Singapore.

In August, it made its first foray into markets beyond Asia, announcing a campus in Lahti, Finland, around 100km northeast of Helsinki.