As artificial intelligence workloads grow more powerful and energy-intensive, the data center industry is undergoing a fundamental transformation. Traditional air-cooled infrastructure is no longer sufficient to support the extreme thermal densities of modern AI and high-performance computing (HPC). Addressing this challenge head-on, Accelsius has closed a $65 million Series B funding round, accelerating the deployment of its two-phase, direct-to-chip liquid cooling technology for gigawatt-class AI factories.
Strategic Backing from Johnson Controls and Legrand
The Series B round was led by Johnson Controls, a global leader in smart, healthy, and sustainable buildings, with strategic participation from Legrand, a specialist in electrical and digital building infrastructures. Their investments highlight the rising demand for advanced thermal management solutions capable of supporting AI-scale computing while improving energy efficiency and sustainability.
Johnson Controls brings deep expertise in data center cooling innovation, including its YORK® YVAM chiller technology designed to improve total facility efficiency. Legrand complements this with a broad portfolio spanning power distribution, rack infrastructure, and connectivity—critical components of modern, high-density data centers. Together, these partners strengthen Accelsius’ ability to deliver end-to-end liquid cooling solutions for next-generation digital infrastructure.
The Rise of the AI Factory
According to Accelsius CEO Josh Claman, the industry is entering an era where the “AI Factory” replaces the traditional data center. These facilities must operate responsibly and efficiently at unprecedented scale, often reaching gigawatt-class power levels. Liquid cooling is becoming a strategic necessity rather than a facility upgrade.
Today’s IT racks already consume up to 130 kilowatts of power, far exceeding the capabilities of air cooling, which can account for up to 40% of total data center energy usage. As AI chips and GPUs generate massive heat loads, data center operators are rapidly pivoting toward liquid cooling technologies that can handle higher densities with lower environmental impact.
NeuCool® and Two-Phase Liquid Cooling Innovation
Accelsius is recognized as a pioneer in two-phase, direct-to-chip liquid cooling, powered by its proprietary NeuCool® technology. Unlike traditional cooling approaches, two-phase systems use non-conductive fluids in highly efficient closed loops, delivering superior thermal performance.
These solutions provide 35% operational expenditure savings compared to single-phase direct-to-chip cooling and deliver 8–17% total cost of ownership savings, making them both economically and environmentally compelling. This positions Accelsius at the forefront of sustainable tech innovation within AI infrastructure.
Accelerating Global Expansion and Production
The newly raised capital will support several strategic initiatives, including the expansion of Accelsius’ Austin production facility, accelerated global growth, and the rollout of its proprietary liquid cooling systems worldwide. As a member of NVIDIA’s Inception program, Accelsius is also developing new thermal reference designs that enable significantly higher cooling capacities, allowing operators to deploy high-performance GPUs at scale without compromising efficiency.
This momentum builds on recent customer wins, including an agreement to deploy NeuCool® technology across a 300 MW campus for DarkNX in Ontario, underscoring growing market adoption.
Liquid Cooling as a Strategic Imperative
Legrand President and CEO Brian DiBella emphasized that thermal management is now a core driver of IT performance. Accelsius’ two-phase liquid cooling offers a practical, energy-efficient pathway for supporting AI workloads while aligning with sustainability goals.
As AI continues to reshape digital infrastructure, Accelsius’ latest funding milestone reinforces the critical role of liquid cooling, sustainable data center design, and advanced thermal management in powering the future of computing.
About Accelsius
Founded by Innventure, Inc. (NASDAQ:INV), Accelsius empowers data center and edge operators to achieve their business, financial and sustainability goals through advanced cooling solutions. The proprietary NeuCool® platform provides best-in-class thermal efficiencies through a safe, two-phase, direct-to-chip liquid cooling system that scales from single racks to entire data centers. For more information, visit accelsius.com or follow us on LinkedIn.
About Johnson Controls
At Johnson Controls (NYSE:JCI), we transform the environments where people live, work, learn and play. As the global leader in smart, healthy and sustainable buildings, our mission is to reimagine the performance of buildings to serve people, places and the planet.
Building on a proud history of nearly 140 years of innovation, we deliver the blueprint of the future for industries such as healthcare, schools, data centers, airports, stadiums, manufacturing and beyond through OpenBlue, our comprehensive digital offering.
Today, Johnson Controls offers the world’s largest portfolio of building technology and software as well as service solutions from some of the most trusted names in the industry.
Visit johnsoncontrols.com for more information and follow @Johnsoncontrols on social platforms.
About Legrand
Legrand is the global specialist in electrical and digital building infrastructures. Its comprehensive offering of solutions for residential, commercial, and datacenter markets makes it a benchmark for customers worldwide. The Group harnesses technological and societal trends with lasting impacts on buildings with the purpose of improving life by transforming the spaces where people live, work and meet with electrical, digital infrastructures and connected solutions that are simple, innovative and sustainable. Drawing on an approach that involves all teams and stakeholders, Legrand is pursuing a strategy of profitable and responsible growth driven by acquisitions and innovation, with a steady flow of new offerings that include products with enhanced value in use (energy and digital transition solutions: datacenters, digital lifestyles and energy transition offerings). Legrand reported sales of €8.6 billion in 2024. The company is listed on Euronext Paris and is a component stock of the CAC 40, CAC 40 ESG and CAC Transition Climat indexes (code ISIN FR0010307819). www.legrand.us
