The AI infrastructure boom has spawned new winners! Capital eyes are on the rise for vacuum equipment, liquid cooling and special gas stations for European industrial stocks
The Zhitong Finance App learned that as artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure construction continues to expand, the scope of benefits from the AI investment boom is extending deeper into the industrial chain from chip manufacturers and large electrical equipment companies. A number of European industrial and chemical companies that produce vacuum pumps, heat exchangers, liquid cooling equipment and specialty gases are becoming less visible winners in the AI wave, and are also providing new options for investors who want to reduce the concentration of traditional AI stocks.
After global AI concept stocks experienced a pullback in the past few months, market interest in AI investment is heating up again. However, unlike the previous focus on chasing chips and data center power equipment, investors are beginning to further explore untapped growth links in the AI industry chain.
Barclays analyst George Featherstone said, “After experiencing a pullback in global AI stocks over the past few months, investors want to re-enter this space because they see how strong underlying demand is, but they are looking for new opportunities that are different from those that are clearly visible.”
AI demand spreads deeper into the industrial chain, and the growth of vacuum equipment and specialty gases accelerates
The Swedish industrial group Atlas Copco is a typical example of this trend. The company's vacuum technology division provides vacuum pumps and exhaust gas management systems for semiconductor manufacturers. The division's sales declined for a while last year, but it is expected to grow 19% this year, outpacing all other business divisions of the Group.
In the semiconductor manufacturing process, a large number of processes must be completed in a highly controlled vacuum environment, so as AI chip production capacity and investment in advanced processes expand, the demand for related vacuum equipment also grows.
French industrial gas giant Air Liquide (Air Liquide) is also directly benefiting from the expansion of semiconductor production. Its electronics business division provides industrial and specialty gases for chip manufacturing, and is expected to be one of the company's most outstanding businesses this year.
Sebastian Bray, an analyst at Berenberg Bank, estimates that about 40% of current orders for liquefied air come from AI-related electronics businesses. He said that for most industrial and chemical companies, AI is only a favorable growth booster, but for a few companies, its impact is already more significant.
German chemical company Wacker Chemie (Wacker Chemie) is one of the world's largest semiconductor-grade polysilicon producers, enabling it to directly participate in the semiconductor manufacturing industry chain.
This means that the demand brought about by AI capital expenditure is no longer limited to GPUs, servers, and power equipment, but is gradually being transferred to more basic processes such as vacuum systems, materials, and industrial gases required for chip manufacturing.
Demand for liquid cooling in data centers heats up, heat exchangers and valve manufacturers become new beneficiaries
In addition to semiconductor manufacturing, next-generation AI data center architectures are also creating new requirements for industrial equipment.
As the computing density and power consumption of AI servers continue to increase, traditional air cooling methods are becoming more and more difficult to meet cooling requirements, and the importance of liquid cooling technology has increased. Goldman Sachs analyst Daniela Costa said investors are currently looking more closely for companies with exposure to the liquid cooling business, and this trend is expected to benefit Swedish industrial group Alfa Laval (Alfa Laval).
Alfa Laval's energy division supplies liquid cooling systems and heat exchangers to data centers and is expected to be the company's main growth driver in 2026.
Air conditioning and building control equipment manufacturer Belimo Holding also received attention. The company manufactures valves for liquid cooling systems. Featherstone said these liquid cooling valves are “extremely critical” to data center operations, and their importance cannot be underestimated.
At the same time, the demand brought about by AI data center construction is spreading further to a wider range of industrial fields. For example, paint manufacturer Sherwin-Williams (Sherwin-Williams) provides fire-resistant coatings and resin floor materials for data centers, and is also indirectly benefiting from the boom in server facility construction.
AI growth helps traditional industrial companies offset weakness in other markets
The importance of AI-related business is also that it can help some European industrial and chemical companies offset the pressure caused by weak demand in end markets such as housing, automobiles, and traditional industrial manufacturing.
In a context where traditional business recovery is still unclear, companies have also begun to actively invest more capital in high-growth fields such as data centers and semiconductors.
More than US$170 million has been invested in liquefied air to provide related supplies for SK Hynix (SKHY.US)'s semiconductor plant in Indiana, USA. British chemical company Johnson Matthey acquired Comertech in May this year to meet the growing power generation needs of US data centers.
Bray said that chemical companies as a whole have been in an environment of weak demand for some time, so naturally they are more willing to invest capital in areas with clear growth prospects, such as data centers.
AI investors are starting to look for “second-tier” opportunities
The changing direction of market attention also reflects that AI trading itself is gradually maturing.
Over the past few years, GPU manufacturers, semiconductor companies, and data center power equipment suppliers have been the most direct AI investment targets. Today, as these fields have received a large amount of financial attention, investors are beginning to explore further downstream of the industrial chain.
Featherstone said investors are now concerned about: “In the next level of the industry chain, which sectors have the strongest growth?”
This trend has caused industrial products such as vacuum pumps, industrial gases, liquid-cooled heat exchangers, and key valves, which were not considered typical AI assets in the past to receive more and more attention.
Reduce the concentration of AI holdings Traditional industrial stocks provide an alternative investment path
However, although capital expenditure on AI infrastructure is expected to remain high in the medium term, in the long run, the investment cycle may gradually slow down and enter the platform period.
Goldman Sachs's Costa believes that some industrial and chemical companies do not rely entirely on the AI business; on the contrary, this can help investors avoid focusing too much on AI topics in their portfolios.
Taking Atlas Copco as an example, investors can not only obtain indirect benefit exposure from AI capital expenditure, but also access many traditional industrial terminal markets. Some of these industries are currently at the bottom of the cycle and are likely to recover in the future.
Featherstone believes that such companies actually provide a “second-tier exposure” to AI capital expenditure: they can benefit from AI infrastructure construction and not rely entirely on a single investment cycle like pure AI companies.
As the market re-evaluates investment opportunities in the AI industry chain, investors are gradually shifting from the most direct chip and data center equipment manufacturers to suppliers hidden behind semiconductor manufacturing, heat dissipation, materials, and industrial infrastructure. Businesses that were relatively low-key in the past, such as vacuum equipment, liquid cooling systems, heat exchangers, and specialty gases, are becoming a new growth point for traditional European industrial companies to share the global AI capital expenditure boom.