Eaton, the U.S.-based intelligent power management company, has announced a major acquisition deal to purchase the Boyd Thermal division of Boyd Corporation from Goldman Sachs Asset Management for $9.5 billion. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2026 pending regulatory approval.
This marks one of Eaton’s largest deals to date and underscores the growing convergence between power management and thermal technologies in an era of surging global data center demand.
Boyd Thermal is a leading provider of advanced thermal management systems and ruggedized cooling solutions for data centers, aerospace, industrial, and defense applications. The division, headquartered in the United States and employing more than 5,000 people across North America, Europe, and Asia, is projected to generate $1.7 billion in annual sales by 2026 – of which $1.5 billion will come from liquid cooling technologies. Eaton will pay approximately 22.5 times Boyd Thermal’s projected adjusted 2026 EBITDA, reflecting the premium investors are placing on next-generation liquid cooling and high-efficiency thermal systems.
The acquisition signals Eaton’s strategic push to strengthen its foothold in the fast-growing data center infrastructure market, which is being reshaped by artificial intelligence workloads and their unprecedented power and cooling requirements. “Combining Eaton’s current products and scale with Boyd Thermal’s highly engineered liquid cooling technology and global service model will enhance value for customers,” said Eaton CEO Paulo Ruiz. “Our combined expertise in power and liquid cooling – from the chip to the grid – will enable customers to more effectively manage increasing power demands, especially in data centers.”
Doug Britt, CEO of Boyd Thermal, echoed this sentiment, calling the move a natural fit for the two companies’ complementary expertise. “Our decades of experience in liquid cooling, along with Eaton’s leading position in intelligent power management, will deliver innovation in scaling and efficiency to address the high-power demand of AI data centers,” said Mr. Britt. “Our teams will work together to provide customers with a compelling value proposition.”
High-Density Liquid Cooling Platforms
Boyd Thermal’s technology portfolio includes high-density liquid cooling platforms, thermal interface materials, and ruggedized systems that support extreme operational environments – ranging from hyperscale data centers to aerospace and defense systems.
The company traces its roots to aerospace thermal engineering and has evolved into one of the most diversified providers of precision thermal management globally. Its focus on liquid cooling aligns with the industry’s pivot away from air-based systems as processors, GPUs, and AI accelerators generate exponentially higher heat loads.
For Eaton, the deal would deepen its capabilities across the data center and electrification ecosystems at a time when global infrastructure is straining to meet rising power demands. The company expects Boyd Thermal to be accretive to adjusted earnings within two years after closing, adding both scale and technological depth to Eaton’s power management business.
Founded in 1911, Eaton has long been a fixture in industrial and electrical manufacturing, supplying energy-efficient systems across commercial, industrial, aerospace, and residential sectors. In recent years, the company has repositioned itself as a digital and sustainable infrastructure leader, driven by global trends in electrification and energy efficiency. Eaton reported nearly $25 billion in expected 2024 revenue and operates in more than 160 countries.
The acquisition of Boyd Thermal extends that evolution into the thermal domain, creating a vertically integrated platform that connects power delivery with advanced cooling – a combination increasingly critical in high-performance computing environments. The deal not only highlights Eaton’s ambitions in data center technology but also illustrates a broader industry trend: as artificial intelligence accelerates global compute demand, the lines between power management, cooling, and sustainability are rapidly blurring.
With AI-driven hyperscale campuses consuming unprecedented amounts of energy, both investors and infrastructure providers are racing to optimize every watt. Eaton’s bet on Boyd Thermal positions it squarely at the center of that transformation, integrating power intelligence with precision cooling to serve the next generation of compute infrastructure – from the cloud to the edge.
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