Calgary-based CoolIT Systems is preparing to add nearly 300 employees this year as accelerating investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure drives demand for its liquid-cooling technology.
The hiring push accompanies an expansion of CoolIT’s engineering, manufacturing and production capacity in Calgary, strengthening the city’s role in a global data centre supply chain increasingly constrained by power and cooling requirements.
As AI processors become more powerful, they also generate considerably more heat than conventional computing hardware. That is making traditional air cooling less practical for high-density deployments and pushing hyperscalers, server manufacturers and data centre operators toward systems that move liquid directly to heat-generating components.
CoolIT develops coldplates, coolant distribution units, rack manifolds and other infrastructure used to cool AI and high-performance computing systems. The company says its technology has been deployed in more than 300 data centres and that it has shipped more than five million coldplates worldwide.
The expansion follows Ecolab’s completion of its US$4.75-billion acquisition of CoolIT in July.
Ecolab said CoolIT’s year-to-date sales had grown by more than 100 per cent when the transaction closed, reflecting the rapid adoption of liquid cooling across AI data centres.
The acquisition combined CoolIT’s hardware and thermal-engineering capabilities with Ecolab’s expertise in water management, cooling chemistry, digital monitoring and on-site services. CoolIT continues to operate under its established brand as part of Ecolab’s Global High Tech business.
Founded in Calgary in 2001, CoolIT initially developed cooling products for desktop computers before shifting its attention toward data centres and high-performance computing. It now works with major chipmakers, server manufacturers, hyperscalers and colocation providers.
The company has continued to advance its technology alongside the expansion. Earlier this year, CoolIT unveiled a 15-kilowatt coldplate designed to handle the thermal requirements of future ultra-high-density GPUs and AI accelerators.
The design demonstrates how quickly the physical requirements of AI infrastructure are changing. As rack densities climb, cooling is becoming a determining factor in how much computing capacity operators can install—and whether that capacity can run reliably without excessive energy and water consumption.
CoolIT’s hiring plans suggest the AI data centre boom is already producing opportunities beyond facility construction and operation. Canadian companies can also participate by supplying the specialized components, manufacturing capacity and engineering expertise required inside those facilities.
For Calgary, the expansion positions a homegrown company at the centre of one of the data centre industry’s most urgent infrastructure challenges.