Omen AI buys rival Aquatic Labs in $16 million deal
US startup Omen AI, which builds sensors to monitor data center cooling fluids, is acquiring competitor Aquatic Labs in a $16 million deal. The companies plan to merge their technologies into a single sensor expected on the market in early next year.
US startup Omen AI, which builds real-time sensors for monitoring data center cooling fluids, is acquiring rival Aquatic Labs. The deal, worth $16 million in cash and stock, was disclosed on November 2. It matters because AI expansion is driving up the water needed to cool chips, while checking the condition of cooling fluids is still often slow.
The water problem
According to the Water Foundation, US data centers use 17 to 19 billion gallons of water a year to cool chips, and the figure is expected to triple within five years. Fluid quality is currently checked by sending samples to a laboratory, a process that takes several days. Omen AI, founded in 2024, is developing a sensor that can tell whether valves are failing or whether bacterial growth threatens to choke off water flow. The company raised a $31 million Series A round in June.
Combining two technologies
Omen founder Zach Laberge was introduced to Aquatic Labs CEO Allan Adams by an investor in the filtration sector. Omen's sensor detects elements in the water, while Aquatic Labs' sensor measures alkalinity. Adams told TechCrunch that combining them gives a much richer picture of the water and fluid. Laberge is a college dropout whose first company analyzed fluids in hydraulic construction machinery. Adams is a physicist who worked as an MIT professor and a researcher at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. He is now chief science officer of the combined company. The sensor merging both technologies is expected on the market in early next year.
Plans and benefits
Laberge said Omen's initial sensors will monitor chips drawing 250 to 300 MW of power by the end of the year, worth about $5 to $7 billion, with a goal of reaching the equivalent of 1 GW by the end of 2027. The main benefit is uptime: when a fluid system goes out of balance, operators typically dump the water to protect costly equipment, halting operations. Monitoring lets them reuse the same fluid for longer.
Laberge said investor skepticism about the AI infrastructure buildout does not affect the company, because its projects were financed 12 months ago.
