Summary
- Munters has expanded its Daleville, Virginia data-centre cooling campus to approximately 52,000 square metres.
- The site now manufactures air- and liquid-cooling equipment including chillers, CDUs, CRAHs, and fan-coil arrays.
- Chiller manufacturing previously carried out in Italy has been localised in Virginia, illustrating how cooling supply chains are following regional AI infrastructure demand.
Swedish cooling manufacturer Munters has completed a major expansion of its data-centre production campus in Daleville, Virginia, increasing manufacturing, testing, training, and chiller capacity as suppliers respond to rapid growth in high-density computing infrastructure.
Munters says the enlarged site now covers approximately 565,000 square feet, or 52,000 square metres, and employs close to 600 people. It is the largest of five dedicated manufacturing facilities in the company’s Data Center Technologies business.
The plant produces equipment across Munters’ air- and liquid-cooling portfolio, including air-side economisers, SyCool Split systems, computer room air handlers, fan-coil arrays, coolant distribution units, and chillers.
The expansion also adds production test stands, a chiller laboratory with an environmental chamber, and a service academy intended to train staff and support customers. Those functions are increasingly important as the cooling systems used in data centres become more specialised and closely integrated with server and facility design.
Munters has also moved chiller production that was previously carried out in Italy to the Virginia plant. That makes the project relevant beyond the US market because it represents a physical shift in the manufacturing footprint of a European cooling supplier as demand grows around North American AI and high-performance computing construction.
Cooling manufacturing follows compute demand
AI infrastructure is changing both the quantity and type of cooling equipment being ordered. Conventional lower-density data halls could rely heavily on air cooling, but high-density accelerator systems are increasing the use of direct liquid cooling and other architectures that move more heat away from racks through water or coolant loops.
That does not eliminate the wider heat-rejection system. Coolant distribution units, chillers, dry coolers, pumps, heat exchangers, controls, and facility-level air handling still have to work as one thermal system, creating demand for suppliers that can provide several layers of the cooling chain.
Munters’ Daleville expansion reflects that shift. A manufacturing campus that can build equipment, test it under controlled environmental conditions, train technicians, and support service operations gives the company a larger local base close to US customers.
Localising chiller production can also reduce transport exposure for large equipment. Data-centre mechanical plant is heavy, bulky, and often configured for individual sites, while project schedules are sensitive to delays in factory testing, shipping, installation, and commissioning.
The move does not mean Munters is retreating from Europe. The group remains headquartered in Sweden and operates globally, but it shows how manufacturing capacity is being placed closer to the regions absorbing the fastest growth in new compute infrastructure.
That is a supply-chain consideration for European developers as well. The expansion of US production can change factory allocation, lead times, and the geographic balance of engineering and manufacturing investment across global suppliers. At the same time, strong North American demand can compete for components and skilled manufacturing capacity used by European projects.
Munters’ Data Center Technologies business has grown into a significant part of the group. The company reported strong order demand in 2026, and its product strategy spans both air and liquid cooling as facility operators adapt designs for denser racks.
The Daleville site originally opened as a major US manufacturing plant earlier in the decade and has now expanded well beyond its initial footprint. The latest investment adds another layer to that trajectory by bringing chiller production into the same campus as other data-centre cooling equipment.
For data-centre developers, the useful measure will be whether manufacturing expansion converts into shorter lead times and more testing capacity as project volumes increase. Cooling has become one of the critical-path packages for AI-ready facilities, particularly where customised mechanical systems need to be coordinated with server delivery and electrical commissioning.
The shift of chiller manufacturing from Italy to Virginia is therefore a small but concrete example of how the data-centre boom is redrawing the industrial supply chain behind the facilities themselves. Compute capacity may be installed in racks, but the ability to operate it still depends on factories capable of producing the thermal plant around them.
