Kelvion is a German company specializing in cooling and heat-transfer technologies for data centers, with data centers accounting for more than half of its total sales. Houston-based SLB, formerly known as Schlumberger, is an oilfield services giant that has been building a dedicated data center division over the past several years. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2027.
Acquirer: SLB. Sellers: Apollo Global Management (majority) and Triton Partners (minority).
The $3.4 billion all-cash deal, plus $700 million in debt assumption, signals that major oilfield services companies are making large, committed bets on data center infrastructure rather than treating it as a peripheral opportunity. Thermal management is an acute bottleneck as AI workloads drive heat loads higher, and SLB's acquisition of a specialist firm in that segment suggests cooling technology is becoming a strategic asset worth billions. The deal arrives as Texas, a key data center growth market, has imposed a moratorium on new project approvals, adding regulatory uncertainty to an already capital-intensive buildout.