Vertiv Expands Italian Manufacturing and Testing Capacity for AI-Driven Data Center Cooling

Vertiv, a global leader in critical digital infrastructure, announced investments at its Tognana campus near Padua, Italy, to significantly expand manufacturing and integrated testing capabilities for data center cooling systems. The company expects the investments to double chiller production capacity in the region by the end of 2026, with a new large-scale testing laboratory scheduled for completion in early 2027. The expansion addresses surging demand for thermal infrastructure driven by artificial intelligence and high-density computing workloads.

The new laboratory will enable testing of large-scale chillers and validate their integration with liquid cooling systems under high-density load conditions and extreme temperature ranges. By allowing customers to verify thermal performance under simulated site conditions, the expanded facility aims to accelerate the deployment of increasingly complex cooling architectures. Vertiv expects this capability to help operators deploy advanced thermal management systems with greater speed and confidence.

“AI is driving thermal demands that didn’t exist two years ago, with higher densities, faster deployment demands, and no room to compromise on reliability,” said Gio Albertazzi, CEO of Vertiv. “The expansion at Tognana puts us further ahead with more manufacturing capacity, integrated testing, and advanced thermal management systems built for current and future generations of silicon. This investment reinforces our position at the front of the curve.”

The Tognana campus serves as one of Vertiv’s principal centers for cooling technology development, integrating research and development, product management, manufacturing, testing, and customer engagement. The site includes a Customer Experience Center where customers and consultants can conduct witness testing of a broad range of cooling technologies across the thermal chain under real-world operating conditions. This expansion reflects a broader industry trend where data center operators are racing to scale liquid cooling and high-capacity chiller infrastructure to manage the intense heat output of next-generation AI chips.