March 8 (Reuters) – U.S. private equity firm KKR is working with advisers on a sale of data center company CoolIT Systems for a price tag potentially exceeding $3 billion, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter.
A potential sale of CoolIT was in the preliminary stage and there were no guarantees that it would result in a transaction, the report said, adding that multiple buyers had been earmarked as potential bidders.
KKR and CoolIT Systems did not immediately respond to request for comment outside regular business hours. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
High-powered AI and cloud servers crunching data need huge amounts of power, which gives off intense heat that traditional air cooling systems are often unable to cool properly.
The global appetite for data centers has sparked a wave of deal-making across the industry as companies race to build capacity to meet the surge in power and cooling needs.
CoolIT specializes in designing, developing and mass-manufacturing liquid cooling technologies for AI and computing systems, according to its website. It was acquired by KKR in 2023.
(Reporting by Anusha Shah in Bengaluru, Editing by Louise Heavens)
