Molex invests in liquid cooling startup CAEPlus to bolster AI data center thermal strategy

Electronics and connectivity giant Molex has made a strategic investment in CAEPlus, an early-stage liquid cooling vendor developing a direct-to-chip solution designed for AI and high-performance computing (HPC) data centers. The move underscores the growing importance of advanced thermal management as compute densities continue to rise across the industry.

CAEPlus, founded just two years ago, is behind a proprietary liquid cooling system known as BoundaryCool. The company says the technology leverages an active cooling method that enhances fluid-surface interaction at the microscale, delivering improved thermal performance compared with conventional approaches. The investment will allow Molex to integrate BoundaryCool into its broader thermal management portfolio, giving the company a stronger foothold in the rapidly expanding liquid cooling market.

“Advanced thermal management is becoming a critical enabler for the next wave of compute performance,” said Jairo Guerrero, vice president and general manager of Molex’s copper solutions business. “Our strategic investment in CAEPlus reflects Molex’s commitment to supporting innovations in liquid cooling while working with emerging technology leaders to help customers address rapidly evolving AI and compute-intensive data center requirements.”

Illinois-based Molex, a subsidiary of Koch Industries, is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of electronic, electrical, and fiber optic connectivity products. Koch Industries acquired the company in 2013 for $7.2 billion. The partnership with CAEPlus is expected to accelerate the development of BoundaryCool and bring the technology to market more quickly as data center operators grapple with escalating power and cooling demands.

“CAEPlus was founded to address the rapid pace of change in data center cooling requirements by enabling an entirely new class of active liquid cooling solutions,” said Milad Bashirzadeh, founder and CEO of CAEPlus. “In addition to its investment, Molex brings deep engineering expertise and a strong track record of helping scale innovative technologies. We are excited to work together in advancing our proprietary cooling technology and meet unrelenting industry requirements for higher levels of performance and efficiency.”

The investment comes at a time when liquid cooling is moving from niche deployment to mainstream adoption, driven by the explosive growth of AI workloads and the physical limits of air cooling in high-density environments. Industry analysts expect direct-to-chip cooling to become a standard feature in next-generation data centers, making partnerships like this one increasingly strategic for companies looking to secure a competitive edge in the thermal management supply chain.

By backing CAEPlus, Molex is positioning itself not just as a component supplier but as an integrated partner in the cooling ecosystem, a shift that could reshape how connectivity and thermal solutions are bundled and delivered to hyperscale and enterprise data center operators.