Samsung Electronics is in talks to acquire Modine Manufacturing, the Wisconsin maker of cooling systems for data centres, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
A transaction could come together within weeks, per Bloomberg’s sources, though no final decision has been made; the talks could still collapse, and another suitor could yet emerge. Samsung and Modine both declined to comment.
The market voted early. Modine closed regular trading at $106.10, a market value of about $5.6B, then soared past $135 in late trading, a 28% jump.
The stock had fallen around 15% since 3 November, when quarterly results underwhelmed investors. Samsung, worth about $910B after a 72% run this year, rose as much as 3.9% in Seoul before paring gains.
Modine is an odd-sounding prize with a very current shape. Based in Racine, Wisconsin, the company spent decades making heavy-duty heating and cooling for commercial buildings and industrial machines; in October it spun off its automotive business to become a pure-play thermal-management company.
Its fastest-growing unit serves the hyperscalers building data centres, growing 86% annually over the past three fiscal years, per Bloomberg Intelligence, which also notes Modine is small next to the big HVAC makers, “making it an attractive target for vertical integration in AI infrastructure”.
For Samsung, the logic is diversification. The group remains heavily dependent on its memory business, and while chips generate enormous cash, analysts have long pushed it toward growth businesses adjacent to the AI boom. Cooling qualifies: as racks get denser and chips hotter, thermal management has become one of the scarcest skills in the data centre buildout.
Nor would it be Samsung’s first move in the category. The company bought Germany’s FläktGroup, another cooling specialist, for €1.5B last year; a Modine takeover would be a far bolder cheque.
Rivals are circling the same market, with Daikin, LG Electronics, and Vertiv all chasing data-centre thermal demand, part of a broader wave of incumbents pivoting toward AI infrastructure.
The deal would say something about where the AI gold rush’s money is flowing next. The chips get the headlines, but every GPU needs its heat carried away, and the companies that do the plumbing are suddenly worth fighting over.
If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on Google News too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.
If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our Technology category.
