Omen AI, founded in 2024 to build real-time cooling-fluid sensors for data centers, is acquiring Aquatic Labs in a $16 million cash-and-stock deal. The acquisition unites two complementary technologies: Omen’s sensors look for elements in the water, while Aquatic Labs‘ sensor tests alkalinity. The companies say combining them into a single device gives a much richer picture of cooling fluid, and they expect the integrated sensor on the market by early next year.

Water use is a growing problem for AI infrastructure. U.S. data centers consume 17 to 19 billion gallons of water each year to cool chips, a figure the Water Foundation expects to triple in five years. Current monitoring practices involve sending samples to a laboratory for tests over multiple days; Omen’s real-time sensor is designed to detect valve failures and bacteria growth that can throttle water flow.

Omen raised a $31 million Series A in June. Founder Zach Laberge dropped out of high school and previously built a company doing similar fluid analysis for large hydraulic construction machines. Aquatic Labs CEO Allan Adams is a physicist and former MIT professor and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute researcher, and is now Omen’s chief science officer.

Omen’s first sensors will monitor chips using 250 to 300 MW of power by the end of the year, equipment worth about $5 to $7 billion, and the company hopes to cover 1 GW of chips by the end of 2027. The economic value is uptime: operators often dump water and shut down rather than risk equipment damage, so better monitoring extends fluid life and cuts cleanup costs. Adams also wants the technology applied to the water that data centers return to municipal systems. Although AI infrastructure spending estimates once ran as high as $4 trillion by 2030 and recent investor skepticism has sent hyperscaler stocks plummeting, Laberge says Omen is insulated because its customers’ projects were financed about 12 months ago.