ExxonMobil and Submer Group Partner to Develop Next-Generation Data Center Cooling Infrastructure

ExxonMobil and Submer Group have announced a collaboration to develop next-generation data center infrastructure aimed at addressing the escalating demands of artificial intelligence, cloud computing and other high-performance workloads. The partnership brings together ExxonMobil's deep expertise in energy, chemistry, engineering and performance fluids with Submer Group's comprehensive capabilities across the data center lifecycle, including site development, design, construction and live operations.

The initiative comes as data center operators worldwide race to expand capacity for increasingly compute-intensive applications, confronting mounting challenges around power availability, cooling requirements, reliability and deployment timelines. Rising AI compute densities are pushing operators to fundamentally rethink traditional data center designs and explore the integration of behind-the-meter energy solutions with advanced liquid cooling technologies. The companies said meeting this demand will require closer integration of power, cooling and operational strategies from the earliest stages of data center development.

Submer Group brings expertise spanning cooling, infrastructure, cloud and edge environments, underpinned by research and development focused on liquid cooling and sustainable data center design. Through its development and operating platform, Rubix, the company manages the full data center lifecycle, covering site selection, power procurement, design, construction and operations. Submer Group is supported by a global development pipeline exceeding 8 gigawatts of planned capacity.

Glen Sharkowicz, Market Development Manager for ExxonMobil Product Solutions Company, emphasized the importance of efficiency as a design principle, stating that designing facilities with efficiency as a foundational principle is essential, as this approach can reduce infrastructure complexity, lower water consumption and improve energy utilization by directing more available power toward computing resources rather than operational overhead. Patrick Smets, CEO of Submer Group, said the company's mission is to enable AI infrastructure at scale, supporting gigawatt-scale deployments across global regions, and that working together with ExxonMobil brings complementary capabilities that can help create a more integrated, scalable and efficient foundation for the future of data center development and operations.

The collaboration underscores a broader industry shift toward integrating power and cooling strategies as AI adoption continues to accelerate. As demand for scalable, power-efficient and resilient digital infrastructure grows, the partnership between a major energy company and a data center technology provider signals a trend toward cross-industry alliances designed to tackle the physical constraints of modern computing infrastructure.