GS Engineering & Construction partners with LG Electronics, GRC to develop immersion cooling for AI data centers

GS Engineering & Construction is expanding its technology partnerships into the cooling sector as it works to strengthen its competitiveness in the AI data center market, following earlier collaborations in power equipment and modular construction.

The company announced Wednesday that it signed an MOU with LG Electronics and GRC, a global immersion cooling specialist, at its headquarters in Jongno-gu, Seoul, to cooperate on "technology development for data center immersion cooling and integrated cooling solutions, and facility technology."

The agreement was driven by the need to secure technological competitiveness in cooling — one of the core areas of AI data center development.

GS Engineering & Construction has been steadily building its AI data center capabilities. In August, it signed an agreement with LS Electric to ensure a stable supply of power equipment, and in September it joined LG Uplus and four other companies to begin developing a standard model for prefabricated modular data centers.

The rapid spread of generative AI has driven up demand for high-performance AI semiconductors, making effective heat management an increasingly critical challenge for data centers. AI data centers running large-scale, high-performance servers generate significantly more heat than conventional facilities, making cooling performance and power efficiency key competitive factors.

The immersion cooling technology the three companies will jointly develop works by submerging servers directly in a non-conductive cooling fluid that absorbs and removes heat — unlike conventional air-cooling systems. Because deploying immersion cooling in an actual data center requires coordinating not just cooling equipment but also building structure, piping, power infrastructure and maintenance space, the three partners plan to develop an integrated solution connecting the data center's architecture and facilities with the immersion cooling system.

Under the partnership, GS Engineering & Construction will handle standard architectural design for AI data centers and operate a proof-of-concept testbed to verify equipment placement, structural load, piping and power connections, and traffic flow. LG Electronics will contribute cooling system technology, operational data and cooling equipment, while GRC will supply immersion tanks and control technology and take charge of improving system performance based on maintenance data.

"We are broadening our network of specialist partners across power, design and construction, operations and now cooling to secure competitiveness in the AI data center business," a GS Engineering & Construction official said. "Through this collaboration, we will verify the practical applicability of immersion cooling technology for high-performance AI data centers and continue to strengthen our data center design and construction capabilities to meet future customer needs."

Meanwhile, GS Engineering & Construction recently held "Gran Partners Fiesta 2026," an event aimed at fostering mutual growth with its partner companies.