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From News Desk

Vertiv (“Vertiv”), a provider of digital infrastructure, announced its wholly-owned subsidiary, Vertiv Corporation, has entered into an agreement and plan of merger to acquire Utility Innovation Holdings, which operates as UtilityInnovation Group (“UIG”), a provider of microgrid solutions, advanced power controls and behind-the-meter power architecture design for datacentres, for approximately USD 1.45 billion in cash at closing, with additional consideration of up to USD 1.15 billion in cash based on achieving certain earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (“EBITDA”) targets over 12- and 24-month periods.

These capabilities are expected to help datacentre operators secure power faster as grid constraints increasingly limit AI infrastructure deployment.

As power availability becomes a more critical factor in datacentre development, architecture decisions are moving earlier in the planning process. Microgrid systems can coordinate onsite generation and energy storage, reduce reliance on utility power and support the grid when needed. This is expanding the importance of power architecture at the earliest stages of site development, when decisions can have significant implications for downstream infrastructure.

“For AI datacentre operators, competitive advantage increasingly depends on how quickly they can move from site selection to first token,” said Gio Albertazzi, CEO, Vertiv. “Vertiv has the most complete power and cooling portfolio in the industry. With UIG, we anticipate extending that portfolio upstream to the utility interconnect and onsite power sources, creating a coordinated architecture from source to chip without tying customers to a single generation technology or supplier. Albertazzi continued, “Together, we anticipate being better positioned to support grid-connected sites, bridge-to-grid deployments and islanded sites supplied by onsite generation, while reducing complexity from site planning through rack-level deployment. This broader capability can help customers accelerate time to power and, ultimately, time to first token.”

UIG Founder and CEO Sidney Hinton added, “UIG was founded to solve increasingly complex power challenges for data center operators through flexible, technology-agnostic architectures. Vertiv’s global scale, critical infrastructure portfolio and service capabilities make it a strong strategic fit for what we have built. We believe this combination can expand the reach of UIG’s microgrid controls and power architecture expertise and create greater value for customers as power becomes an increasingly critical constraint on data center growth.”