Every AI chip that gets switched on turns electricity into heat, and somebody has to remove it. The companies that build that equipment, chillers, coil products, and liquid cooling loops, are telling investors that demand is booming.
Order books are outrunning factories
AAON posted record third quarter net sales of $707.4M, up 84.1%, with operating income up 129.3% to $100M and diluted EPS up 124.3% to $0.83. Its BASX data center unit drove it, with sales up 218.3% to $397.2M and liquid cooling sales up 255.6% to $165.5M.
BASX backlog, meaning work customers have already ordered, sits at about $1.4B, up 51%. The company raised full-year 2026 sales growth guidance to 72%-75% from 55%-60%.
CECO Environmental reported the same day, with orders of $777.6M, up 234%, and backlog of $2,193.5M, up 205%. Earnings released on Nov. 9 showed the cycle has turned hard in their favor.
Cooling Suppliers Posted Triple Digit Growth Last Quarter
Year over year growth in latest reported quarter, %
Bar chart. % change year over year. AAON liquid cooling sales: % change 255.60%. CECO orders: % change 234%. AAON BASX data center sales: % change 218.30%. Modine data center sales: % change 95%. AAON total net sales: % change 84.10%. Vertiv sales: % change 61%.
Source: AAON, CECO Environmental, Motley Fool
The pattern repeats across the group
Vertiv grew third quarter sales 61% to $4.3B and more than doubled organic orders. Modine saw data center sales rise 95% to $440M, while Comfort Systems carries a backlog of $17.8B against $9.4B a year earlier.
Modine locked in future volume back in May, agreeing to supply more than $4B of Airedale cooling products from 2027 through 2029. The customer paid $165M upfront to fund the capacity.
Sterling Infrastructure shows the same pattern on the builder side, with revenue more than doubled, up 127%, and combined backlog up 78% to $6.1B.
Why liquid cooling is the swing factor
MarketsandMarkets projects the AI data center liquid cooling market will grow from $3.52B in 2026 to $20.39B by 2032, a 34% compound annual growth rate. The research firm names Vertiv among the leading players by market share.
Liquid Cooling Market Heads Toward Twenty Billion Dollars
Global AI data center liquid cooling market size, $B, 2026 and 2032 projection
Line chart. Market size ($B). 2026: Market Size ($B) $3.5. 2032: Market Size ($B) $20.4.
- 2032 figure is a projection implying a 34.0% compound annual growth rate.
Source: MarketsandMarkets, Oct. 20, 2026
As high-performance AI hardware gets deployed, rack densities are climbing past the point where air alone can carry the heat away, which is why liquid cooling now serves as the main thermal design for AI racks. Among the size classes, the 150 kW and above band is forecast to compound fastest, at 78%.
At the end of 2025 Vertiv was carrying a $15B backlog, up 109%, and its line now runs coolant distribution units sized from 70 kW to 1,350 kW.
Money is also moving through acquisitions, with Eaton buying Boyd Thermal, Ecolab buying CoolIT Systems, and Trane Technologies buying LiquidStack.
Fast revenue is not clean revenue
Growth is arriving with costs attached. Modine's data center gross margin fell 4.7 percentage points to 19.7%, and AAON's gross margin came in at 26.7%, down from 27.8% in the prior-year period, as the company absorbed growth-related costs.
AAON also disclosed a material weakness in internal control over financial reporting and restated its first and second quarter 2026 statements. The restatements raised first-half net sales by $10.7M and diluted EPS by $0.09, with the company reporting no evidence of fraud.
Policy is the other variable. Analysts at Goldman Sachs see Democratic governors in Texas, Georgia and Michigan imposing conditional moratoria as new legislation restricting data centers advances, and the firm puts 45% of planned US data center capacity in the states most likely to add restrictions.
How the exposure breaks down
Breadth matters when demand is concentrated. Vertiv's growth spans regions, with sales up 75% in the Americas, 50% in Asia-Pacific, and 23% in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
Smaller, more concentrated suppliers carry more risk if projects stall. CECO's chairman and chief executive Todd Gleason pointed to a $9B sales pipeline and said the backlog is largely permitted and underway, describing it as funded active projects rather than speculative demand.
The near-term tell is new orders. Delays from tax break changes or tighter water and power rules would hit bookings before they ever reach reported sales, and CECO has guided 2027 revenue to between $2.1B and $2.3B on the strength of what's already signed.
