Omen AI is acquiring competitor Aquatic Labs for $16 million in cash and stock, integrating real-time water quality sensing technology to automate coolant monitoring. The two companies will combine their sensor technologies, with a new product expected to launch in early next year, targeting coverage of 1 gigawatt of chips by 2027. Real-time monitoring extends coolant lifecycle, reduces costs associated with drainage, replacement, and cleaning, minimizes downtime risk, and addresses water management challenges in data centers.Author and source: AIBase
In November, Omen AI, a startup specializing in liquid cooling system monitoring for data centers, announced the acquisition of competitor Aquatic Labs for $16 million in cash and stock, integrating both companies' real-time water quality sensing technologies to advance automation in coolant monitoring. Omen AI, founded in 2024, completed a $31 million Series A funding round in June this year.
According to data from the Water Foundation, U.S. data centers use approximately 1.7 to 1.9 billion gallons of water annually for chip cooling, a figure projected to triple over the next five years. Currently, coolant testing typically requires sending samples to a laboratory, taking several days to complete. Omen AI has developed a sensor that detects elements in water in real time, identifying issues such as valve failures and bacterial growth that can lead to flow blockages; Aquatic Labs focuses on measuring water alkalinity. The two companies plan to integrate their technologies into a single sensor, expected to launch on the market in early next year. Allan Adams, CEO of Aquatic Labs, will serve as Chief Scientific Officer of the combined company.
Zach Laberge, founder of Omen AI, said the company’s initial sensors will be used to monitor chips consuming 250 to 300 megawatts of power by the end of this year, valued at approximately $5 to $7 billion, with the goal of scaling applications to the equivalent of 1 gigawatt of chips by the end of 2027.
Real-time monitoring is expected to help data centers extend coolant lifecycle, reduce costs associated with drainage, replacement, and cleaning, and minimize downtime losses caused by system failures. As investment in AI infrastructure continues to expand, water resource management and operational efficiency of liquid cooling have become new technical demands. Omen AI believes its business primarily targets data center projects that have already secured funding or are under construction, making it relatively less affected by short-term fluctuations in AI infrastructure investment sentiment.