SLB to Acquire Kelvion, Expanding Data Center Infrastructure and Thermal Management Capabilities
SLB (NYSE: SLB) has announced an agreement to acquire Kelvion, a global provider of thermal management and heat exchange technologies, in a move designed to significantly expand its presence in the rapidly growing data center infrastructure market. The acquisition will strengthen SLB’s Data Center Solutions business by adding advanced cooling and heat-transfer technologies that are becoming increasingly critical as artificial intelligence drives unprecedented growth in computing capacity and data center construction worldwide.
The transaction represents a major expansion of SLB’s industrial technology strategy beyond its traditional energy markets. As data centers become larger, more powerful and increasingly dependent on advanced computing systems, managing the heat generated by high-density IT equipment has become one of the industry’s most important infrastructure challenges. By bringing Kelvion’s thermal management portfolio into its business, SLB aims to offer customers a broader and more integrated range of infrastructure solutions.
SLB Chief Executive Officer Olivier Le Peuch said the accelerating global investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure is creating one of the most significant industrial investment cycles in recent history.
“AI is driving the most significant infrastructure investment cycle in our lifetime,” Le Peuch said. “This transaction accelerates our ambition to become an industrial technology partner to the data center industry and help customers address the growing infrastructure complexity required to scale AI.”
According to SLB, the acquisition will significantly expand the company’s capabilities in thermal management while increasing the scale of its potential market opportunity. The company expects the addition of Kelvion to more than double its revenue opportunity for each gigawatt of data center capacity delivered.
Kelvion brings more than a century of experience in heat exchange and thermal management technologies. The company serves customers across data centers, energy systems and industrial markets, supplying equipment and technologies designed to manage heating and cooling requirements across a broad range of applications.
The company’s portfolio includes technologies supporting increasingly complex cooling and heat-transfer needs, placing it at the intersection of two major long-term industrial trends: the rapid expansion of AI and digital infrastructure and the transformation of global energy systems.
For 2026, Kelvion is expected to generate revenue of approximately $2.3 billion to $2.4 billion, along with adjusted EBITDA of approximately $350 million to $400 million. Data centers are expected to represent Kelvion’s largest and fastest-growing end market, with revenue from the sector projected to reach between $1.2 billion and $1.3 billion during 2026.
The growing importance of data centers within Kelvion’s business highlights the accelerating demand for advanced thermal technologies. AI workloads require increasingly powerful processors and computing systems, which generate substantially more heat than traditional computing infrastructure. As a result, cooling has become a critical consideration in the design, construction and operation of modern data centers.
The acquisition is intended to give SLB a more direct role in addressing this challenge. Rather than focusing only on broader infrastructure design and integration, the combined business will be able to incorporate thermal management more deeply into its overall offering.
Beyond the data center market, Kelvion has established operations across several energy and industrial sectors. Its technologies are used in applications including heat pumps, renewable energy systems, carbon capture and industrial processing. These markets are also expected to require increasingly sophisticated thermal management as companies seek to improve energy efficiency, operational reliability and overall system performance.
SLB’s existing Data Center Solutions business has already experienced rapid growth. The company expects revenue from the business to increase at a compound annual growth rate of more than 90% between 2024 and 2026. In addition, cumulative delivered capacity is expected to exceed 2 gigawatts by the end of 2026.
SLB has developed its data center offering around modular manufacturing, offsite construction, engineering and digital capabilities. This approach allows infrastructure components to be manufactured and assembled outside the project site before being transported for installation.
By reducing the amount of work required at the construction site, modular delivery can simplify project execution and potentially accelerate the process of bringing new data center capacity online. SLB estimates that its approach can reduce onsite construction complexity and shorten the time required to reach operational status by as much as 40%.
The acquisition of Kelvion is expected to enhance this strategy by integrating cooling and thermal management technologies more closely with the company’s modular infrastructure systems.
Gavin Rennick, president of SLB’s New Energy and Industrial business, said the increasing sophistication and energy requirements of data centers are changing what customers expect from infrastructure providers.
“Data centers are becoming more sophisticated and energy-intensive, and customers are increasingly looking for partners that can optimize how critical systems work together across the facility and help bring new capacity online faster,” Rennick said.
He added that thermal management has become central to meeting the performance and operational requirements of next-generation computing facilities.
“Thermal management is central to that challenge, and this acquisition allows us to address it directly by delivering more integrated cooling solutions, accelerating innovation, optimizing thermal efficiency, and more directly embedding thermal management into our modular infrastructure offering.”
Under the terms of the agreement, SLB will acquire Kelvion from funds managed by Apollo, the company’s majority owner, and funds advised by Triton, which holds a minority interest.
SLB will pay approximately $3.4 billion in cash and assume approximately $0.7 billion in debt. The transaction therefore has a total value of approximately $4.1 billion.
Based on Kelvion’s estimated 2026 financial performance, the transaction represents approximately 11 times estimated 2026 EBITDA before anticipated synergies. Including the expected benefits from combining the two businesses, the valuation falls to approximately 8.5 times EBITDA.
SLB expects the acquisition to generate approximately $120 million in annual EBITDA synergies within three years of closing. These benefits are expected to come from a combination of cost efficiencies and new revenue opportunities created by integrating the two businesses.
The company also expects the transaction to be accretive to both earnings per share and free cash flow per share during the first 12 months following completion.
Together, SLB and Kelvion are expected to generate more than $2 billion in data center-related revenue on a pro-forma basis in 2026. The combined data center business is also expected to produce approximately $300 million in adjusted EBITDA during that year.
Looking further ahead, SLB has established ambitious targets for the expanded business. By 2028, the company is targeting combined data center solutions revenue of between $4.5 billion and $5 billion, with adjusted EBITDA expected to reach between $700 million and $800 million.
These targets reflect SLB’s expectation that investment in data center capacity will continue to accelerate as AI adoption expands across industries. Demand for computing infrastructure is driving new investment not only in servers and processors, but also in power systems, cooling technologies, construction methods and integrated infrastructure.
The transaction also demonstrates the increasing convergence between energy infrastructure and digital infrastructure. Modern data centers require large and reliable electricity supplies, sophisticated cooling systems and increasingly efficient infrastructure. Companies with experience in large-scale industrial projects, engineering and energy systems are therefore seeking opportunities to participate in the sector’s expansion.
SLB expects to maintain a strong investment-grade balance sheet following completion of the acquisition. The company said its net debt-to-EBITDA ratio is expected to remain within its previously stated through-cycle target of up to 1.5 times.
The company also reaffirmed its commitment to return more than $4 billion to shareholders during 2026 through dividends and share repurchases. While formal financial targets for 2027 will be established through the company’s annual planning process, SLB expects shareholder returns to remain at least in line with its planned 2026 levels.
The transaction remains subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. SLB expects the acquisition to close during the first half of 2027.
Once completed, the addition of Kelvion will give SLB a substantially expanded presence in data center infrastructure and a stronger position in the thermal management technologies required to support high-density computing. With AI continuing to drive demand for new digital capacity, the combined business is expected to focus on delivering integrated infrastructure solutions that address construction speed, cooling performance, energy efficiency and operational complexity.
For SLB, the acquisition represents a significant step in building its role as an industrial technology provider to the data center industry while also creating additional opportunities across energy transition and industrial markets where advanced thermal management technologies are increasingly essential.
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