Schneider Electric will pay about $850 million for a controlling stake in Motivair Corp, a specialist in liquid cooling for high-performance computing, the French firm said on Thursday, beefing up offerings for rapidly-growing data centres. The all-cash deal, expected to close in the coming quarters, will give Schneider a stake of 75 per cent in U.S.-based Motivair, with plans to buy the rest by 2028. The deal strengthens Schneider's offering of direct-to-chip liquid cooling and high-capacity thermal systems, the company said in a statement.
据路透社报道，法国施耐德电气公司在周四表示，将花费约8.5亿美元收购专门从事高性能计算液体冷却的公司Motivair Corp，这一举动将增强其对快速增长的数据中心的服务。此次全现金方式的交易，预计将在接下来的数季度完成，施耐德将获得总部位于美国的Motivair公司的75%的股份，并计划在2028年收购剩余的股份。在一份声明中，施耐德电气表示，这笔交易强化了直接芯片液体冷却和高容量热系统产品。
The boom in use of generative-AI and large language models such as Chat-GPT calls for more efficient cooling solutions in data centres, particularly liquid cooling as traditional air cooling cannot disperse the greater heat, the company added.
施耐德电气补充说，生成式人工智能和 Chat-GPT 等大型语言模型的使用激增，要求数据中心采用更高效的冷却解决方案，尤其是液体冷却，因为传统的空气冷却无法散发更多热量。
Motivair, based in Buffalo in New York state, makes units that pump the coolant at very high pressure close to the chips, cooling servers in an efficient way, said Peter Herweck, Schneider's chief executive.
施耐德CEO 彼得·赫韦克表示，总部位于纽约州布法罗的 Motivair 公司生产的设备可在芯片附近以极高的压力泵送冷却液，从而高效地冷却服务器。
The data centre and networks market accounted for 21 per cent of Schneider's 2023 orders, or about 8 billion euros ($8.7 billion)worth of sales, Herweck added, and is seeing double digit growth this year.
彼得·赫韦克补充说，数据中心和网络市场占施耐德2023年订单的 21%，销售额约为80 亿欧元（折合87亿美元），今年该市场将实现两位数的增长。
In the U.S. market, data centre power use is expected to roughly triple between 2023 and 2030, requiring about 47 gigawatts of new generation capacity, Goldman Sachs estimates.
依照高盛的估计，在美国市场，数据中心用电量预计将在2023年至2030年之间增长约三倍，需要约47千兆瓦的新一代发电容量。
The U.S. is the largest market but demand for data centres is growing elsewhere too.
美国是最大的市场，不过对数据中心的需求在其他地方也在增长。
Shares in Schneider are up 31 per cent this year, helped by its strong market position.
得益于其自身的强势市场地位，施耐德电气的股价在今年已上涨31%。
Herweck said Schneider was not actively looking at further deals for its data centre offering.
彼得·赫韦克表示，施耐德并未积极寻求进一步的数据中心产品交易。
"(Motivair) has really comprehensively, for the moment, completed our portfolio," he said, adding that it could still consider opportunities that arose.
他说，“目前，Motivair已经让我们的投资组合得以全面完善”。
"We continue to be agile and we have a strong balance sheet," he said.
他表示，“我们仍将继续保持敏捷性，我们也拥有强有力的财务状况表。”
Schneider Electric ended without agreement talks this year for a potential deal with U.S. engineering software maker Bentley Systems.
事实上，今年，施耐德电气在与美国工程软件制造商 Bentley Systems 之间的潜在交易谈判并未能达成一致。
