How heat, humidity and water use minimization could drive data center cooling, power demand and stocks

Research evidence excerpt

How heat, humidity and water use minimization could drive data center cooling, power demand and stocks

EQUITY RESEARCH | July 13, 2026 | 5:16PM EDT

How heat, humidity and water use

minimization could drive data center

cooling, power demand and stocks

The choice of technologies to cool data centers, as well

as cooling technology innovation, is likely to center

around growing compute density and increasing

necessity to minimize water and power consumption in

pursuit of both operator efficiency and support from

policymakers and/or local communities. We see elevated

attention on data centers in areas with local resource

constraints and/or high ambient temperatures -- which

our analysis indicates could represent ~56%/55% of

expected global/US capacity adds through 2035. In these

areas, heat rejection cooling technologies that virtually

eliminate or minimize ongoing water intake can come

with a tradeoff of ~25%-45% greater power

consumption, even as industry is focused on innovations

that can minimize both water and power intensity.

In this report, we consider how ambient temperatures/humidity levels along with the

water/power tradeoff could drive the choice for white space and gray space cooling technology

selection and implications to both data center power demand and stocks of the cooling supply

chain. We highlight 41 global Buy-rated stocks in the data center cooling/power supply chain

that we believe could see tailwinds, levered to:

• Ambient solutions, controls and components.

• Advanced liquid cooling solutions and components.

• Water efficiency innovation and recycling/desalination.

• Thermal equipment, transmission and consulting for data center waste heat recovery.

• Power and power infrastructure supply chain.