Artificial Intelligence · Profile from AI Research Companion
Vertiv
The Ohio-based maker of the power and cooling equipment that sits between the electricity grid and the AI chip — uninterruptible power supplies, switchgear, busways, precision air conditioning, chillers, and since 2023 the coolant distribution units and liquid-cooling systems that frontier GPU racks need. Vertiv is the former Emerson Network Power, sold to private equity in 2016, listed through a SPAC in 2020, nearly broken by inflation on fixed-price contracts in 2022, and then remade under CEO Giordano Albertazzi into one of the largest "picks and shovels" winners of the AI build-out: net sales of ~$10.2bn in 2025 (reported) with a year-end backlog of ~$15.0bn (10-K), Q3 2026 net sales of $4.31bn (+61%) and organic orders up more than 100% year on year (company, 28 October 2026), and 2026 guidance raised to ~$14.65bn. Its business turns on a single physical fact: an Nvidia GB200 NVL72 rack draws ~120–130 kW, roughly ten times a traditional enterprise rack, and air can no longer carry that heat away (section 16).
At a glance
- Founded
- Roots in Liebert Corporation (Columbus, Ohio, 1965; precision cooling), acquired by Emerson Electric in 1987 and later combined into Emerson Network Power; became Vertiv when Platinum Equity bought the business (closed 30 November 2016)
- Headquarters
- Westerville (Columbus area), Ohio; major operations in the US, Italy, Croatia, India, China, the Philippines and Mexico (company)
- Ownership / structure
- Public, NYSE: VRT since 7 February 2020, after merging with GS Acquisition Holdings Corp, a Goldman Sachs-sponsored SPAC chaired by David Cote; Platinum Equity sold down its stake in 2020–23 (reported)
- Leadership (2026)
- Giordano Albertazzi (CEO from 1 January 2023; previously chief operating officer and president of the Americas, and before that head of EMEA); David Cote (executive chairman); Craig Chamberlin (CFO, verify current title)
- Layer
- Memory and hardware / data-centre physical infrastructure: power, thermal management, racks, prefabricated modules and services
- Scale
- Net sales ~$5.0bn (2020), ~$5.7bn (2022), ~$6.9bn (2023), ~$8.0bn (2024), ~$10.2bn (2025) (company, rounded; verify 2022–24); backlog ~$7.2bn (end 2024) → ~$15.0bn (end 2025) (10-K); Q3 2026 net sales $4,313m (+61%, +55% organic), adjusted operating margin 25.2% (company, 28 October 2026); ~30,000+ employees (verify)
- Capital
- Platinum Equity purchase ~$4bn (2016); SPAC merger at ~$5.3bn enterprise value (announced December 2019); acquisitions of E+I Engineering (~$1.8bn incl. earn-out, 2021, reported), CoolTera (December 2023, undisclosed), Great Lakes Data Racks & Cabinets (July 2025, undisclosed) and PurgeRite (late 2025, ~$1bn reported but not confirmed by the company; Vertiv's filings show only ~$278m net paid for businesses in the first nine months of 2026, so reports differ on price, timing or structure — verify)
- Key partnerships
- Nvidia (reference designs for GB200/GB300 racks, the 800-volt direct-current architecture, "AI factory" blueprints); hyperscalers and colocation firms (customers not named individually); Intel and others on liquid cooling (reported)
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- The Emerson carve-out to Platinum Equity (2016); the SPAC listing (2020); the 2022 inflation margin miss and guidance cuts; Albertazzi's operating reset (2023); CoolTera and the liquid-cooling bet (2023); Nvidia reference designs and the AI-factory partnership (2024); the DeepSeek shock and tariff squeeze (2025); Great Lakes, PurgeRite and 800-volt DC power (2025)
8 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2016
Emerson Sale to Platinum Equity
Acquisition / carve-out (private-equity buyout)
2020
SPAC Listing with GS Acquisition Holdings
IPO (merger with a special-purpose acquisition company)
2022
Inflation Margin Miss and Guidance Cut
Restructuring / failure (guidance cuts and repricing)
2023
Albertazzi CEO and the Margin Reset
Leadership change / restructuring
2023
CoolTera and the Liquid Cooling Bet
Acquisition / launch (liquid-cooling portfolio)
2024
Nvidia Reference Designs and the AI Factory Partnership
Partnership
2025
DeepSeek Shock and Tariff Squeeze
Market shock / regulatory action (and the company's response)
2025
Great Lakes PurgeRite and 800V DC Power
Acquisition / partnership