FläktGroup Builds First 2.5 MW DX CDU for 25 MW US Data Hall
FläktGroup produced its first 2.5 MW refrigerant-based coolant distribution unit in Arkansas for a US campus planned at 200 MW, joining a crowded 2.5 MW CDU class.
Energy & Cooling DeskEdited by Ege Erten
2 min readAI-assisted
FläktGroup describes the unit as its first 2.5 MW direct expansion CDU; the rating is a vendor claim.
Illustration (AI-generated)
FläktGroup said on Oct. 28 that it has produced its first 2.5 MW direct expansion (DX) coolant distribution unit (CDU), a refrigerant-based liquid cooling unit built at its Arkansas facility for a customer in the United States.
The company calls the unit a milestone in its move into liquid cooling for AI data centers. A CDU sits between the server racks' coolant loop and the building's heat rejection. Unlike conventional liquid-to-liquid CDUs, this one uses refrigerant-based cooling, according to trade outlets Cooling Post and Thermal Control Business Update, which carried the news on Oct. 30.
FläktGroup, which describes itself as a Samsung company, did not name the customer or the site. Cooling Post reported that the unit was developed in close collaboration with the customer to meet project-specific requirements, and Thermal Control Business Update said it took several months of work across engineering, sourcing, manufacturing and project delivery.
The campus behind the unit
According to Thermal Control Business Update, the unit will serve a major US data center development. The first phase is designed to support a 25 MW data hall, and a second phase is expected to double that to 50 MW. The wider campus is planned to reach 200 MW of total power capacity across eight development phases.
The unit's first phase serves 25 MW; the wider campus is planned at 200 MW across eight development phases.
Illustration (AI-generated)
Marc Hayes, FläktGroup's executive vice president for data centers in the Americas, said the project shows the company can develop solutions for emerging customer challenges as the industry adopts liquid cooling for AI applications.
The reports give no figure for rack density, supply temperature, refrigerant type or the number of units per hall. They also do not say whether 2.5 MW describes heat removed or something else, so the rating should not be read as a like-for-like electrical figure.
Where it sits among 2.5 MW CDUs
The 2.5 MW class is filling up quickly. Cooler Master unveiled a 2,500 kW in-row CDU for AI data center cooling, and Trane and LiquidStack introduced the CDU 2.X, a 2.5 MW coolant distribution unit, as Voltgrid reported on Oct. 18.
FläktGroup's unit is, by the reports, a refrigerant-based DX design built to a specific customer's project requirements rather than a general catalog launch. Whether that approach lowers water-side plant needs for a hall is not quantified in any of the sources.
What is not confirmed yet
FläktGroup has not published the customer, the delivery schedule or performance data such as capacity per unit at a stated temperature. Whether the first 25 MW hall will use one unit or several, and when it energizes, is also not stated. The cooling capacity and the 25 MW hall figure are different quantities, and the sources do not link them.
Readers tracking the market should watch for a spec sheet, the refrigerant choice and any second order, since a single production unit is a first delivery, not yet a volume ramp.
