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Integrated Electrical and Mechanical Systems

Schneider Electric AI Factories Datacenters Hyperscale Datacenters

Snapshot

Integrated Electrical and Mechanical Systems is the physical infrastructure layer that makes AI-oriented data centers operable: power distribution, generation, cooling, controls, and the engineering/construction work that integrates them into a functioning facility. The category is expanding because AI rack density is turning electrical capacity and heat rejection—not compute silicon alone—into the binding constraints on data-center deployment.

“The Data Center Construction Market size is expected to grow from USD 281.34 billion in 2025 to USD 431.39 billion by 2031, at a 7.51% CAGR.”[1]

This profile captures the category as of October 2026, using data-center construction and power/cooling infrastructure as the closest measurable market proxies. It is worth maintaining as a reference card because the market is coalescing around a buyer problem—delivering high-density compute quickly and reliably—rather than around a single product class.

What is this Market Category?

Integrated Electrical and Mechanical Systems comprises the engineered hardware, software, and delivery services that connect a data center’s compute load to power and thermal infrastructure. The electrical side includes utility interconnection, substations, transformers, switchgear, UPS systems, busways, generators, batteries, power distribution, and controls; the mechanical side includes chillers, cooling towers, pumps, heat exchangers, liquid-cooling distribution, direct-to-chip systems, immersion systems, and associated building services.[1][2]

The category is sold primarily to hyperscalers, colocation providers, AI-cloud operators, enterprises building private AI capacity, utilities, general contractors, and data-center developers. Its commercial value lies in integrating these systems into a safe, maintainable facility with predictable power quality, thermal performance, commissioning, and uptime—not merely selling an individual component.[1][4]

The category excludes semiconductors, servers, accelerators, model software, and ordinary building construction that does not materially affect data-center power or thermal performance. It also excludes standalone utility generation and transmission unless they are developed specifically as part of the data-center capacity solution; the boundary is therefore broader than “data-center equipment” but narrower than the entire energy and construction ecosystem.

The boundary is disputed at the edges: some operators include on-site generation, grid interconnection, and project finance because “energizing” capacity is inseparable from the facility, while others restrict the category to equipment and EPC integration inside the data-center fence line.[4]

Why Now?

  • AI rack density has made cooling a first-order design constraint. In the United States, average rack power is reported to be rising from 8 kilowatts in 2024 to 15 kilowatts in 2026, while mechanical infrastructure is forecast to grow at a 9.87% CAGR—faster than the broader electrical segment.[2]

  • Capital is shifting toward the physical “energizers” of compute. McKinsey estimates that roughly $1.3 trillion of the projected $7 trillion data-center investment race will flow to power generation and transmission, cooling, and electrical equipment.[4]

  • Electrical capacity is becoming the gating item for AI expansion. Electrical systems represented 39.95% of 2025 data-center construction budgets globally, making power infrastructure the largest measurable component of the construction stack.[1]

  • Liquid cooling is moving from specialist technology to mainstream infrastructure. Funding tracked across cooling-focused companies—including ZutaCore, Omen AI, Orbital Industries, and Barocal—reached $191 million in the cited 2026 period, indicating that thermal management is attracting dedicated infrastructure capital rather than being treated only as an ancillary server feature.[6]

  • The buyer is increasingly purchasing an integrated delivery outcome. McKinsey’s framing of “builders” and “energizers” reflects a market in which land, construction, grid capacity, cooling, and electrical equipment must be coordinated rather than procured as isolated work packages.[4]

What's Happening?

CAGR and TAM

  • Mordor Intelligence, “Data Center Construction Market Size & Growth 2031.” The global market is estimated at $281.34 billion in 2025 and $300.38 billion in 2026, reaching $431.39 billion by 2031 at a 7.51% CAGR for 2026–2031; the report segments the market by infrastructure category and identifies electrical systems as 39.95% of 2025 budgets.[1]

  • Fortune Business Insights, “Data Center Construction Market Share, Size, Trend, 2034.” This estimate places the 2025 global market at $275.16 billion and forecasts $761.19 billion by 2034, implying an 11.97% CAGR; the materially higher result illustrates the lack of a single market definition and likely reflects different inclusion rules, forecast windows, and market-model assumptions.[3]

  • Global Market Insights, “Data Center Construction Market Size & Share 2026–2035.” The firm estimates a narrower $227.6 billion market in 2025 and forecasts $434.7 billion by 2035 at a 6.8% CAGR, further demonstrating that “data-center construction” is a proxy rather than a standardized category for integrated electrical and mechanical systems.[10]

Category creation events

  • AI infrastructure has reframed data-center construction as an “energizing” problem. McKinsey’s 2025 report explicitly separates builders from energizers and assigns approximately 25% of the $7 trillion investment opportunity to generation, transmission, cooling, and electrical equipment.[4]

  • Mechanical systems are becoming a distinct growth segment rather than a secondary construction line item. Mordor reports that mechanical systems are growing at 9.31% globally through 2031, despite electrical systems holding the largest 2025 budget share.[1]

  • Direct-to-chip and two-phase cooling have become reference architectures for high-density AI facilities. The funding record cited for Accelsius describes two-phase direct-to-chip cooling for gigawatt-class facilities, while ZutaCore is described as providing waterless two-phase direct-to-chip infrastructure for AI and HPC data centers.[7]

Capital concentration

  • Funding is concentrated in physical-capacity providers. A September 2026 funding analysis reports $4.07 billion across 12 disclosed data-center financings, with four financings representing approximately 83% of the total.[6]

  • The largest pools of capital are going to operators and developers, not component startups. A separate deal compilation reports more than $35 billion across 45 data-center funding deals from 2024–2026 and says operators generally raised hundreds of millions or billions, while infrastructure-technology rounds were usually below $150 million.[12]

  • Cooling capital is clustering around direct-to-chip and immersion approaches. The cited funding analysis lists LiquidStack’s $20 million Series B, Submer’s $55.5 million Series C, Accelsius’s $24 million Series A and $65 million Series B, and ZutaCore’s $100 million Series C.[7]

Market Incumbents

  • Schneider Electric — Global electrical distribution, UPS, power-management, cooling, and data-center infrastructure provider serving hyperscale, colocation, and enterprise facilities.

  • Vertiv — Vertiv — Public critical-digital-infrastructure company spanning power, thermal management, modular systems, monitoring, and lifecycle services for data centers.

  • Eaton — Large electrical-equipment incumbent supplying switchgear, UPS, power distribution, energy-management, and data-center electrical systems.

  • Johnson Controls — Building-systems incumbent supplying chillers, controls, automation, fire/life-safety, and data-center cooling infrastructure.

  • Siemens — Global electrification, automation, building-controls, and industrial-infrastructure supplier relevant to data-center power and facility integration.

  • Caterpillar — Generator and distributed-power incumbent supplying backup and prime-power systems for critical facilities.

  • Legrand — Electrical and digital-building infrastructure supplier with data-center busway, rack-power, cable-management, and power-distribution offerings.

Schneider Electric

Stage: public (Euronext Paris: SU).

Funding: As a public operating company, Schneider Electric is not meaningfully described through venture funding; its relevant financial scale is represented by public-company revenue and market valuation rather than startup rounds. The available search results do not provide a current market-cap or latest-revenue figure, so those fields are not asserted here.

Footprint: Schneider Electric sells electrical distribution, UPS, cooling, racks, prefabricated modules, and management software across data-center and critical-infrastructure markets; its category footprint spans the electrical and mechanical systems that sit between utility supply and IT load.[1]

Why they're in this category: Schneider combines power distribution, uninterruptible power, cooling, prefabricated infrastructure, and facility-management software into an integrated data-center stack rather than selling only one electrical component.

Coverage: The available search results do not return a directly usable trade-press or analyst article specific to Schneider’s role in this category.

Vertiv

Stage: public (NYSE: VRT).

Funding: As a public company, Vertiv’s relevant financial profile is public-market scale rather than venture funding; the available search results do not provide its current market capitalization or latest reported revenue.

Footprint: Vertiv’s product scope covers power, thermal management, modular data-center infrastructure, monitoring, and lifecycle services, placing it directly across both sides of the integrated electrical/mechanical boundary.[1][4]

Why they're in this category: Vertiv is a direct category incumbent because it supplies both high-availability power systems and heat-removal infrastructure designed for the same critical-data-center customer.

Coverage: The available search results do not return a directly usable article focused on Vertiv.

Johnson Controls

Stage: public (NYSE: JCI).

Funding: The available search results do not provide a current market-cap or latest-revenue figure for Johnson Controls.

Footprint: Johnson Controls is positioned in this category through industrial-scale chillers, building-management systems, controls, and data-center cooling; its strategic relevance is reinforced by its reported participation in Accelsius’s $65 million Series B alongside Legrand.[7]

Why they're in this category: Johnson Controls brings incumbent chiller, controls, and building-automation capability into high-density AI facilities and is also acting as a strategic investor in emerging liquid-cooling infrastructure.[7]

Coverage: The available search results identify Johnson Controls as a lead investor in Accelsius’s Series B but do not provide a separate usable trade-press article.[7]

Market Challengers

  • QTS Data Centers — Large-scale data-center developer and operator whose growth depends on delivering power, cooling, and capacity for hyperscale and AI customers.

  • Vantage Data Centers — Hyperscale-focused data-center developer expanding power-dense facilities across multiple regions.

  • Aligned Data Centers — Data-center infrastructure challenger built around scalable campuses, power distribution, cooling, and high-density deployments.

  • Digital Realty — Public data-center platform with global colocation and interconnection footprint, increasingly exposed to AI power and thermal requirements.

  • Equinix — Global colocation incumbent-challenger at the facility layer, integrating power, cooling, interconnection, and high-density customer deployments.

  • LiquidStack — Growth-stage liquid-cooling company supplying direct-to-chip and immersion systems for AI and HPC facilities.

  • Submer — Scale-up focused on immersion-cooling infrastructure for high-density data centers and AI workloads.

LiquidStack

Stage: Series B / scale-up.

Funding: LiquidStack raised a reported $20 million Series B in September 2024, with Tiger Global identified in the available funding record.[7]

Footprint: LiquidStack supplies direct-to-chip and immersion-cooling systems for data centers and AI/HPC facilities; the available search results do not provide employee count, customer count, or revenue.[7]

Why they're in this category: LiquidStack is a challenger because it attacks the thermal bottleneck with liquid-based systems that can support higher-density racks than conventional air cooling.

Coverage: The available search results identify LiquidStack in a 2024–2026 data-center funding analysis, but do not return a dedicated article with a named journalist.[7]

Submer

Stage: Series C / scale-up.

Funding: Submer raised a reported $55.5 million Series C in October 2024, with M&G, Planet First Partners, Norrsken VC, and Mundi Ventures identified in the available funding record.[7]

Footprint: Submer provides immersion-cooling infrastructure for high-density AI and data-center deployments; the available search results do not provide current revenue, customer count, or geographic coverage.[7]

Why they're in this category: Submer’s differentiator is making immersion cooling a deployable infrastructure system rather than a laboratory cooling technique, targeting facilities where rack density and energy efficiency exceed the practical limits of air cooling.

Coverage: The available search results include Submer in a sector funding analysis but do not provide a directly usable named trade-press article.[7]

Accelsius

Stage: Series B / scale-up.

Funding: Accelsius reportedly raised a $24 million Series A in November 2024 and a $65 million Series B in January 2026; Johnson Controls led the Series B with Legrand participating.[7]

Footprint: Accelsius develops two-phase direct-to-chip cooling for AI/HPC and gigawatt-class data-center facilities; the available search results associate its system with racks exceeding 4,500 watts per socket.[11]

Why they're in this category: Accelsius is a challenger because it focuses on two-phase direct-to-chip cooling for the rack densities created by modern AI systems and has attracted strategic investment from established facility-infrastructure companies.[7][11]

Coverage: The available search results describe Accelsius’s financing and technical positioning in sector funding coverage.[7][11]

Market Innovators

  • Claros — Seed-stage power-infrastructure startup developing systems for AI data centers and critical facilities.

  • Amperesand — Early-stage power-infrastructure company targeting AI data centers and other high-reliability facilities.

  • TAR / Transformative American Resources — Early-stage developer of modular on-site power systems for AI data centers.

  • Omen AI — Omen AI — Early-stage cooling company included in recent funding activity around AI data-center thermal management.

  • Orbital Industries — Orbital Industries — Early-stage cooling-infrastructure company targeting AI data-center thermal constraints.

  • Barocal — Barocal — Early-stage thermal-management company included in the emerging AI cooling-finance cohort.

  • Starcloud — Starcloud — Early-stage infrastructure venture associated with physical AI-compute capacity and data-center financing.

Claros

Stage: Seed.

Funding: Claros reportedly raised a $30 million seed round led by General Catalyst and Red Cell Partners.[11]

Footprint: Claros is described as developing AI data-center power infrastructure, but the available search results do not provide revenue, employee count, customer count, or deployed capacity.[11]

Why they're in this category: Claros belongs in Innovators because its early capital is directed at rethinking how power infrastructure is delivered to AI facilities rather than scaling a mature electrical-equipment portfolio.[11]

Coverage: The available search results identify the round and investors in a sector financing post, but do not provide a dedicated named-journalist article.[11]

Amperesand

Stage: early-stage / privately funded.

Funding: Amperesand reportedly raised $80 million in the fourth quarter of 2025, with the available search results attributing the figure to Business Wire.[12]

Footprint: Amperesand develops power infrastructure for AI data centers and critical facilities; current customers, deployed megawatts, employees, and revenue are not provided in the available search results.[12]

Why they're in this category: Amperesand is an innovator because it treats AI data-center power delivery as a dedicated infrastructure product rather than as a conventional utility-interconnection project.[12]

Coverage: The available funding compilation identifies the $80 million round and Business Wire as the source.[12]

ZutaCore

Stage: Series C / growth-stage private company; included here because its product thesis is still an early category-redefinition bet even though its funding stage is beyond the strict Innovator definition.

Funding: ZutaCore reportedly raised $100 million in June 2026 in a round involving Mitsubishi Electric, Carrier Ventures, Samsung Ventures, and additional investors.[7]

Footprint: ZutaCore provides waterless two-phase direct-to-chip cooling for AI/HPC data centers; the available search results do not provide customer count, revenue, or employee count.[7]

Why they're in this category: ZutaCore is a boundary case: financially it fits more naturally among challengers, but its waterless two-phase approach is a novel-bet architecture that could redefine the mechanical layer for high-density AI facilities.[7]

Coverage: The available search results identify ZutaCore’s financing and strategic-investor participation in recent data-center funding coverage.[7]

Industry Coverage and Market Data

Market Reports

Industry Articles

Financial News Sources

Frontier and Open Questions

  • Will “integrated systems” include generation and grid interconnection, or stop at the data-center fence line? Incumbents such as Caterpillar, Eaton, Schneider Electric, utilities, and large EPC firms are most likely to resolve this through bundled project delivery, while McKinsey’s “energizer” framing supports the broader boundary.[4]

  • Will liquid cooling become the default architecture for AI facilities, or remain a premium layer for only the densest racks? Challengers such as LiquidStack, Submer, Accelsius, and ZutaCore are positioned to answer this through deployments, reliability data, and total-cost-of-ownership evidence.[7]

  • Can the electrical supply chain scale as quickly as AI demand? Incumbents with transformer, switchgear, UPS, generator, and controls capacity are advantaged, but early-stage companies such as Claros and Amperesand are targeting alternative power-delivery models.[11][12]

  • Will customers buy complete “capacity outcomes” instead of separate equipment packages? Hyperscalers, colocation providers, and challengers such as QTS, Vantage, and Aligned will determine whether integrated EPC and infrastructure-as-a-service contracts displace fragmented procurement.

  • Do market reports measure the same market? The reported 2025 global market ranges from $227.6 billion to $281.34 billion, while forecast CAGRs range from 6.8% to 11.97%; analysts must normalize geography, inclusion rules, and whether the estimate covers construction, EPC, equipment, or total facility investment.[1][3][10]

  • Can waterless or two-phase systems overcome operational conservatism? ZutaCore and Accelsius are advancing waterless and two-phase architectures, while Johnson Controls and Legrand provide incumbent channels that may accelerate adoption or preserve conventional hybrid designs.[7]

Adjacent Concepts and Categories

  • AI Factories — Large-scale facilities designed around the co-optimization of compute, power, cooling, networking, and operations.

  • Data Center EPC — The engineering, procurement, and construction layer that converts site, utility, and equipment requirements into an operating facility.

  • Direct to Chip Liquid Cooling — Thermal infrastructure that removes heat directly from processors rather than relying solely on room-level air cooling.

  • Immersion Cooling — A mechanical architecture in which servers or components are submerged in dielectric fluid.

  • Data Center Power Infrastructure — Utility interconnection, generation, transformers, switchgear, UPS, batteries, and distribution systems serving critical compute.

  • High-Density Compute — AI and HPC workloads whose rack power and thermal loads exceed conventional enterprise data-center assumptions.

  • Digital Twins for Critical Infrastructure — Software models used to design, simulate, commission, and operate integrated electrical and mechanical systems.

  • Energy Availability as a Service — Commercial models that package power procurement, generation, interconnection, and facility capacity for data-center customers.

Sources

[1]: Data Center Construction Market Size & Growth 2031 [2]: United States Data Center Construction Market Size & Share Analysis [3]: Data Center Construction Market Share, Size, Trend, 2034 [4]: The cost of compute: A $7 trillion race to scale data centers - McKinsey [5]: Data Center Construction Market Research Report 2034 [6]: Data Center Market Funding News (September 2026) [7]: Data Center Startup Funding 2024-2026 [8]: Data Center EPC Market Companies, Size & Trends 2026-2035 [9]: AI Data Center Power & Cooling Fundraising (2026) [10]: Data Center Construction Market Size & Share 2026 - 2035 [11]: Veronika Shabunko (PhD, PMP)'s Post [12]: Data Center: 45 Funding Deals (Full List 2024-2026) (2026) [13]: data-center-construction-market-5809 [14]: North America Data Center Construction Market Size, Area ... [15]: Europe Data Center Construction Market Size and Share

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