The news
Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) said on August 19, 2026, that it would invest about KRW 240 billion (USD 158 million) in a new Samsung HVAC production line in Gwangju, South Korea, to make FläktGroup equipment, including cooling for AI data centers.
HVAC stands for heating, ventilation and air conditioning, and FläktGroup is the German HVAC company Samsung bought in 2025. According to Samsung, the 21,500 square meter line will sit on its existing operations site in Gwangju and is scheduled to begin operating once it is completed by 2028. Samsung said it plans to supply HVAC equipment and infrastructure to several industrial sectors in Korea, with particular emphasis on the surge in demand from AI data centers.
Samsung's announcement did not list specific products beyond advanced cooling for AI data centers. The Seoul Economic Daily reported on August 19 that the line would make coolant distribution units, which manage the liquid used to cool server chips, along with fan wall units, computer room air handlers and air handling units, with production starting in early 2028. The paper also described it as the largest new investment at the Gwangju plant since the site opened in 1989.
Cheolgi Kim, Executive Vice President and head of Samsung's Digital Appliances business, said the FläktGroup purchase put Samsung in a position to turn HVAC into a new growth engine, with the aim "to become a global top-tier company by 2030." He called the Gwangju investment a foundation for that goal. FläktGroup CEO David Dorney said combining Samsung's AI expertise with FläktGroup's HVAC products would make the company a partner of choice in Korea and across Asia.
FläktGroup runs 14 manufacturing facilities and supplies markets including the U.S., Europe and India, according to the release, which said a new plant in Pune, India, called Project GAGAN, will open soon. Samsung said Gwangju will be FläktGroup's 15th manufacturing facility and its springboard for a full-scale push into the Korean market.
The numbers
- Planned investment
- About KRW 240 billion (USD 158 million)
- Size of the new line
- 21,500 square meters
- Target for operations
- Upon completion by 2028
- FläktGroup plants after Gwangju
- 15
- FläktGroup purchase price (2025)
- €1.5 billion
Why CEOs should care
For companies planning AI data centers, the takeaway is that Samsung is building dedicated cooling capacity, but not quickly. The Gwangju line is not due to operate until 2028, so projects scheduled before then will draw on FläktGroup's existing plants. Buyers speccing liquid cooling should ask Samsung and FläktGroup which plant will supply their coolant distribution units and air handlers, what lead times they will commit to in writing, and whether Korean and Asian customers will get priority for Gwangju output, as the release's focus on the Korean market suggests.
CFOs should treat cooling as a capital line that deserves the same supplier scrutiny as servers. When it agreed to buy FläktGroup in May 2025, Samsung cited market research forecasting 18% annual growth for data center cooling, against 8% for the broader applied HVAC market. If demand grows anywhere near that fast, price protection, multi-vendor sourcing and service coverage belong in the contract before the equipment is scarce, not after.
Boards and CISOs have a separate question. When it closed the FläktGroup deal, Samsung said it would explore integrating FläktGroup's HVAC control systems with its building management platforms, SmartThings Pro and b.IoT. Networked cooling controls in a data center are operational technology, so security teams should ask how those systems are segmented from corporate networks, who can push firmware updates and how remote access is logged.
The bigger picture
The Gwangju plan follows Samsung's agreement on May 14, 2025, to buy FläktGroup from investment firm Triton for €1.5 billion, a deal it completed on November 6, 2025. At that point Samsung said FläktGroup had taken part in the Stargate Project and worked with other major hyperscale customers, and that it planned to expand the HVAC business into high-growth sectors such as AI data centers. FläktGroup, based in Herne, Germany, sells both liquid cooling and air cooling products for data centers, according to Samsung.
Taken together, the steps show Samsung moving from owning a cooling specialist to adding factory capacity for it. For data center builders, that matters because getting cooling equipment delivered on schedule is one of the factors that decides how fast new computing capacity can come online.
What happened next
On September 21, 2026, Samsung broke ground on the Gwangju line, Yonhap reported in a story carried by The Korea Times. Roh Tae-moon, Samsung's co-chief executive and head of its Device eXperience division, attended and described the new line as a milestone for the HVAC business, which he called a key growth driver, according to the report.
The next checkpoint is completion and the start of operations, which Samsung has set for 2028. Watch whether Samsung or FläktGroup names data center customers for Gwangju output, and when FläktGroup's Pune plant in India, which the August 19 release said would operate soon, begins production.
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