Vertiv Holdings (VRT)
UPS, thermal management, power distribution for DC. NVIDIA co-development.
- Ticker: VRT
- Sector: cooling (ups cooling)
- DC exposure tier: high
Vertiv Holdings (VRT) is a high-exposure name in the data-center supply chain in the cooling sector. Data Center Index tracks Vertiv Holdings's capex history, project wins, and supplier exposure across the AI infrastructure buildout, refreshed daily from SEC filings and project announcements.
Vertiv Holdings data center thesis
Vertiv is the integrated power-and-thermal pure-play behind hyperscale AI racks: UPS, busway, rack PDU, and the liquid-cooling reference designs co-developed with NVIDIA. Revenue compounded from $4.4B in 2020 to $10.2B in 2025 at expanding margins (37% gross, $1.8B operating income), and the stock is +262% YoY because B200/B300 thermal density forces customers onto integrated cooling whoever wins the GPU race.
Bull case
- Operating income scaled 8.7x in five years ($210M to $1.83B) on 2.3x revenue, proving Vertiv keeps incremental margin as the AI rack mix shifts from air-cooled to liquid; gross margin already at 37%.
- B200 and B300 GPU racks push 120-140 kW per rack, well past the air-cooled ceiling. Vertiv's CDU-plus-rear-door-heat-exchanger reference design ships factory-integrated, which compresses the customer's site-build timeline.
- Hyperscaler 2026 capex resets keep landing higher each quarter; Vertiv books the power chain (UPS, switchgear, busway) before a single GPU is racked, so it lifts with whichever hyperscaler wins the AI capex auction.
Bear case
- Stock trades at 92% of its 52-week high after a +262% year, multiple compression on any pause in hyperscaler ordering or a missed quarter on the 37% gross-margin line, and the entire AI-cooling premium re-rates lower.
- UPS lead times are easing as Schneider and Eaton add capacity; the 16-30 week window is the tell. The order-book read-through has already shifted from scarcity to competitive intensity on price.
- Liquid cooling is a fast-moving multi-vendor pile-up: Modine, Boyd, Asetek, and CoolIT all chasing the same hyperscaler RFQs. Vertiv's first-mover premium is real but not durable past the next 12-18 months.
Data center exposure rationale
Critical digital infrastructure (power, thermal, racks, services) for DC operators; essentially the entire business is DC.
Vertiv Holdings revenue and capex
In fiscal 2025, Vertiv Holdings reported revenue of $10.2B, capital spending of $220.0M and operating income of $1.8B.
| Fiscal year | Revenue | Capex | Operating income |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $10.2B | $220.0M | $1.8B |
| 2024 | $8.0B | $167.0M | $1.4B |
| 2023 | $6.9B | $127.9M | $872.2M |
Tracked Vertiv Holdings data center projects
- OpenAI Stargate Abilene, 1.2 GW, Abilene, TX · operational
- Colossus 1, 340 MW est., Memphis, TN · operational
- Lancaster County DC, 300 MW, Lancaster County, PA · under construction
- Colossus 2, Memphis, TN · operational
Analysis mentioning Vertiv Holdings
- Why Data Centers Are So Big: A Gigawatt Campus Costs $38 Billion, and the Land Is Under 1% of It, 2026-09-17
- Anthropic's $135 Billion in Compute Leases: Where the 2026 Rent Actually Lands, 2026-09-01
- Nvidia Is Buying Powered Land for a 600-Kilowatt Rack That Just Slipped to 2028, 2026-08-25
- The Supplier Map: Elon Musk Is One of His Own Biggest Data Center Suppliers, 2026-08-25
- The Anthropic IPO Arrives With a $15 Billion Rent Bill: How the Four AI Labs Actually Compare, 2026-08-17