Carrier has put more money into ZutaCore, a maker of direct-to-chip liquid cooling that uses no water at the server. The follow-on investment comes from Carrier Ventures and builds on a first investment made in 2025. The release does not state how much Carrier paid, what stake it now holds, or whether ZutaCore hardware will be sold under a Carrier part number.
ZutaCore is based in Foster City, California. Carrier describes the product this way: "Its HyperCool® technology uses a closed-loop, two-phase system to remove heat at the source, enabling higher-density AI compute and improved energy efficiency." Two-phase means the coolant boils on the cold plate and condenses again, carrying heat out as latent heat rather than as a temperature rise in a water loop.
For an operator, the practical difference is what is running through the pipe above the racks. A single-phase direct-to-chip loop carries treated water or a water-glycol mix, which means water treatment, leak detection sized for a conductive fluid, and a facility water supply to feed it. A waterless loop removes those, and in exchange brings a refrigerant charge, refrigerant handling rules, and a smaller pool of technicians who have worked with it.
Carrier already sells the facility end of the same problem. In February the company introduced the AquaEdge 30CF, an air-cooled centrifugal chiller rated for operation from minus 20F to 140F, positioned inside its QuantumLeap portfolio of thermal products. The ZutaCore investment extends that portfolio toward the cold plate, and Carrier says it expands its capabilities in interoperable single and two-phase cooling systems.
"AI is fundamentally reshaping data center architecture, with thermal management emerging as a key constraint to scale," said Christian Senu, Vice President, Global Data Centers at Carrier. What the statement leaves out is the commercial detail a buyer needs. No integrated product is named, no availability window is given, and no pricing is published. A stated ownership percentage, or a Carrier catalogue item that ships with HyperCool inside it, would settle how tightly the two companies are actually joined.
The order book gives the investment its context. Carrier's first quarter results report data center orders up over 500% and total Commercial HVAC orders up 35%, with backlog that the company says fully covers expected 2026 data center sales. The same quarter shows organic sales down 1% across the group and adjusted operating profit down 30% year over year, so data centers are the growth engine rather than the whole engine.
Vertiv took a different route to the same problem, buying Strategic Thermal Labs outright for its cold-plate design and high-density thermal validation work, again without disclosing a price. Buying the specialist gives Vertiv full control of that roadmap; taking a minority position leaves ZutaCore free to keep selling to Carrier's competitors, which cuts both ways depending on whether a buyer wants a single throat to choke or a component available through several channels.
For engineers scoping a retrofit, the choice between water-based and waterless direct-to-chip now sits between two supported supply chains rather than between a standard and an experiment. The question worth putting to Carrier is which of its data center products will carry ZutaCore technology, and when that product can be commissioned.
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