A Trane executive told Facilities Dive that thermal management has become inseparable from core data center operations, no longer treated as a secondary building systems concern. The shift reflects the growing power density of AI workloads, which require continuous and precisely controlled cooling to maintain hardware reliability and performance. Trane is among several established HVAC manufacturers competing with newer liquid cooling specialists for data center contracts. Operators integrating thermal planning earlier in the design cycle are seeing reductions in stranded capacity and cooling-related downtime, according to the report.