AAON (NASDAQ: AAON) Wins Applied Digital (APLD) Cooling Contract With Waterless Chiller System
AAON has secured a contract with Applied Digital to implement its waterless chiller cooling system in Applied Digital's large-scale AI data centers in North Dakota. This innovative system utilizes the state's cold climate for 'free cooling,' significantly reducing both water and energy consumption. The partnership addresses the increasing demand for sustainable cooling solutions in the data center industry.
AAON has announced it won a cooling contract with Applied Digital, supplying its waterless chiller system for Applied Digital's large-scale AI data centers in North Dakota. This system is designed to meet the high demands of AI workloads without consuming water, a significant advancement given data centers' traditional heavy water usage for thermal management.
The cooling solution takes advantage of North Dakota's extremely cold winters, allowing the system's compressors to shut down and use outside air for cooling, a process known as free cooling or economization. This method drastically lowers energy consumption during colder months, cutting operational costs for Applied Digital and reducing mechanical strain on AAON's equipment.
Applied Digital's facilities in North Dakota are powered by Nvidia processors, crucial for their artificial intelligence workloads. The adoption of water-free cooling is becoming increasingly appealing to data center operators due to growing scrutiny over their environmental footprint, especially in regions with limited or sensitive water resources.
Despite a single-day stock decline for AAON, Applied Digital, and Nvidia following the report, AAON's ability to secure this technically challenging contract in a harsh climate underscores its strong position in the expanding AI data center supply chain. The project highlights a trend among companies to leverage geographic and climatic conditions for engineering and cost benefits in data center infrastructure.