Data Center Cooling Tower Market to Reach USD 2.44 Billion by 2035 as Water Rules Push Hybrid and Adiabatic Coolers

DC Market Insights estimates the data center cooling tower market will grow from USD 1.12 billion in 2025 to USD 2.44 billion by 2035, an 8.06% CAGR. Hybrid and adiabatic coolers are forecast to grow fastest at 12.39% annually, while replacement, rebuild and service work rises from 36.2% to 43.4% of market spending. The outlook reflects expanding AI capacity and demand for water-efficient cooling, tempered by dry-cooling alternatives and water-disclosure rules; these are report estimates rather than company results.

Analysis

The investable signal is a mix shift, not a clean “AI cooling” growth trade. Water-constrained sites and high-temperature liquid loops favor hybrid/adiabatic retrofits; grid-constrained, water-rich campuses can still favor evaporative systems because dry cooling shifts cost into peak-period electricity demand. That creates geographic and design-specific winners, while headline market growth obscures share loss for conventional open towers. A second-order beneficiary may be power and thermal-management infrastructure if dry-cooling adoption raises campus load, but that is not a direct read-through to NVIDIA’s chip economics.

SPX Technologies is the clearest listed exposure in the supplied identities, but treat the report’s market sizing and its stated supplier “capacity” as estimates, not booked revenue or independently verified demand. Recurring service and rebuild exposure could make the opportunity more resilient than new-build equipment alone; execution, retrofit economics, and installed-base capture remain unproven. Johnson Controls is mentioned among profiled competitors, but the article provides no company-specific cooling revenue evidence. SLB’s stated Kelvion deal could provide exposure to dry cooling as well as thermal equipment, but deal terms, close/integration risks, and segment contribution matter more than this market forecast.

Near term, the report itself is unlikely to be a durable catalyst. Over 1–3 months, track SPX data-center orders/backlog, realized revenue, and any guidance commentary on service mix; over 6–18 months, watch water rules and operator design choices. The contrarian risk is that dry-cooler adoption cannibalizes the very market being forecast, while higher fan power makes it less attractive at grid-constrained sites. Falsify the constructive SPX view if company disclosures fail to show conversion of capacity into orders/revenue, or if operators materially accelerate dry-only designs.

Key Decisions for Investors

• SPX Technologies (SPXC): watch for an entry on weakness rather than chase this report. Add only if filings or earnings validate data-center order conversion and service/retrofit contribution; cap exposure if growth depends mainly on unconverted capacity claims.
• Set a 1–3 month catalyst checklist for SPXC: order/backlog trends, data-center revenue disclosure, and margin commentary. Reduce or exit the thesis if those indicators weaken or management signals cancellations/delays.
• Treat Johnson Controls (JCI) and SLB as watch-list names, not equivalent cooling-tower proxies: verify segment exposure and, for SLB, Kelvion transaction completion and contribution before positioning.
• Monitor water-policy implementation and customer cooling designs alongside grid availability. Faster dry-only adoption is a bearish falsifier for tower suppliers; evidence that water-saving retrofits preserve evaporative systems would strengthen the service/retrofit thesis.