Omen AI is buying Aquatic Labs in a $16 million cash-and-stock deal, joining two approaches to monitoring the water and cooling fluids used in data centers. The companies aim to bring their sensor technologies together so operators can spot problems sooner and rely less on laboratory tests that take multiple days.
Why cooling water needs closer monitoring
US data centers use 17 to 19 billion gallons of water each year to cool their hot-running chips, according to the Water Foundation. That amount is expected to triple in the next five years, putting more pressure on a resource that is already costly and politically sensitive.
Keeping cooling systems working involves more than supplying water. Operators need to know when fluid conditions change, whether valves are failing, and whether bacteria growth could obstruct water flow. Today, checking samples can mean sending them to a lab and waiting multiple days for results.
Omen AI was founded in 2024 to make that process faster with real-time sensors. Instead of relying only on delayed sample testing, its system is designed to help identify developing issues while the cooling system is in use.
Two sensor approaches in one system
Omen and Aquatic Labs were developing complementary technology. Omen’s sensors looked for elements in water, while Aquatic Labs’ sensor measured alkalinity. Combining those measurements could give operators a broader view of water and cooling fluid conditions.
The acquisition followed an introduction between Omen founder Zach Laberge and Aquatic Labs CEO Allan Adams, made by an investor in the filtration space. The two companies shared an interest in automating a process that had largely been slow and manual.
Adams will join the combined company as chief science officer. He trained as a physicist and spent much of his career developing ocean sensing technology as an MIT professor and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute researcher. Laberge had previously started a company that performed fluid analysis for large construction machines using hydraulics.
From lab delays to operational uptime
The business case for monitoring is tied to avoiding downtime and unnecessary cleanup. When fluid conditions move outside acceptable limits, data center operators may dump the water rather than risk damaging expensive equipment. Operations can remain shut down until the fluid system is restored.
More timely measurements could help operators keep the same fluid in service longer and reduce cleanup costs. The goal is not only to identify potential problems, but to give data center teams information they can use before a fluid issue forces a shutdown.
The companies are working to integrate both technologies into a single sensor and expect it to reach the market by early next year. Omen’s initial sensors will be monitoring chips pulling in 250 to 300 MW of power by the end of the year, worth about $5 to $7 billion, Laberge told TechCrunch. The company hopes to have sensors installed on the equivalent of 1 GW of chips by the end of 2027.
Water management beyond the data center
Adams also sees a role for the technology after cooling water leaves a data center. The water is ultimately dumped into municipal water, and he says measurement can help make that process safer and more responsible.
The acquisition comes amid uncertainty about the pace of AI infrastructure spending. AI companies once estimated as much as $4 trillion would be spent on AI infrastructure by 2030, while some investors have grown skeptical of the buildout, sending hyperscaler stocks plummeting in recent days.
Laberge said Omen’s work focuses on facilities that are being built today or are already built. He argued that even if the market were cut in half, it would remain extremely large. For Omen, the immediate opportunity is to help operators manage the water systems attached to infrastructure already in service or underway.