SLB has agreed to acquire thermal management and heat exchange technology provider Kelvion for approximately $4.1 billion, including $3.4 billion in cash and the assumption of about $700 million in debt, as the oilfield services company accelerates its expansion into the fast-growing data center infrastructure market.
Under the agreement, SLB will acquire Kelvion from funds managed by Apollo, its majority owner, and Triton, which holds a minority stake. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary conditions, according to a press release by SLB.
SLB said the acquisition will strengthen its Data Center Solutions business by adding Kelvion’s thermal management capabilities, which are designed to improve efficiency, reliability, and performance in increasingly energy-intensive data centers.
The company expects the transaction to generate approximately $120 million in annual EBITDA synergies within three years through cost efficiencies and additional revenue opportunities. SLB also expects the deal to be accretive to earnings per share and free cash flow per share during the first 12 months following closing.
SLB expects its combined data center operations with Kelvion to generate more than $2 billion in revenue and around $300 million in adjusted EBITDA in 2026 on a pro forma basis.
The company is targeting $4.5 billion-$5 billion in revenue and $700 million-$800 million in adjusted EBITDA by 2028 from its combined Data Center Solutions business.
“AI is driving the most significant infrastructure investment cycle in our lifetime,” Olivier Le Peuch, SLB CEO, commented. “This transaction accelerates our ambition to become an industrial technology partner to the data center industry and help customers address the growing infrastructure complexity required to scale AI. Kelvion advances our path toward more integrated data center infrastructure solutions, expands our addressable market — more than doubling our revenue opportunity per gigawatt of delivered capacity — and allows us to scale both our offerings and the global reach of the business.”
SLB has been expanding beyond traditional oilfield services as it seeks new growth areas in digital technology and AI. Reuters reported in June that the company aims to nearly double its digital revenue to $2 billion annually by 2030, while increasing adjusted digital EBITDA to between $1.8 billion and $2 billion. The company has also been developing technologies and infrastructure for AI-powered data centers.
July, SLB also partnered with Liberty Energy to provide modular components and power solutions for data centers, another step toward capturing rising demand for infrastructure associated with artificial intelligence.
