LG Electronics, GS Engineering & Construction and US immersion-cooling specialist GRC have signed a three-way memorandum of understanding to develop immersion cooling technology and standardised facility designs for AI data centres. LG announced the deal on 14 October 2026; Yonhap Infomax’s English report says the MOU was signed on 13 October at GS E&C’s headquarters in Cheongjin-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul.
An MOU is a research-and-cooperation agreement. It is not a commercial deployment, a named customer contract, or a megawatt commitment.
What immersion cooling is
Immersion cooling submerges electronic devices such as GPUs and CPUs in a non-conductive cooling fluid so heat can be removed directly from the components. Yonhap Infomax, citing the partners, describes it as a next-generation approach for AI data centres, where rack power densities have outgrown many traditional air-cooled halls.
Who does what
Under the partnership described by Yonhap Infomax:
- LG Electronics will contribute its existing AI data-centre air-cooling, liquid-cooling and immersion-cooling technologies and operational data, and will build a cooling-solution portfolio based on standardised designs.
- GS E&C will create standardised architectural designs for AI data centres and run proof-of-concept testbeds to check placement of immersion equipment, structural loads, piping and power connections.
- GRC will supply immersion tanks and control technology, and will use installation, operation and maintenance data to improve system performance.
The photo caption in the Yonhap Infomax piece names LG ES Research Lab head Oh Se-ki, GS E&C Future Technology Institute head Cho Sung-han, and GRC Korea branch manager Choi Dong-hoon at the signing.
What LG said
“We will continue to research and develop high-performance, high-efficiency cooling solutions to capture the rapidly growing AI DC cooling solution market,” said Oh Se-ki, head of LG Electronics’ ES Research Lab, according to Yonhap Infomax.
LG is expanding its cooling lineup to include immersion after already offering air and liquid cooling, the report says.
Why it matters
AI training and inference clusters pack more power into each rack than enterprise IT did a decade ago. That has pushed operators toward direct-to-chip liquid cooling and, in denser designs, immersion. TSN has covered related cooling and data-centre moves this year — from DigiCo’s long SYD1 lease to 3C Datalec’s liquid-cooling merger, Vertiv’s India direct-to-chip claim, Google’s air-cooling stance in Visakhapatnam, and AirTrunk’s Japan expansion.
What this Korean-Swiss/US-style three-way MOU adds is an attempt to standardise not only tanks but building design: where tanks sit, how floors carry the load, how pipes and power run. That is often where immersion projects stall — not at the tank, but at the facility.
What it is not
The announcement does not name a commercial site, a capacity target in megawatts, a customer, or a date when a PoC becomes a product. Readers should treat “standard designs” and “PoC testbeds” as R&D language until a deployment is announced.
What to watch next
- Whether LG or GS E&C publish a PoC site or timeline
- Whether GRC tanks appear in a named Korean or regional AI campus
- How the portfolio competes with other liquid- and immersion-cooling vendors already selling into Asia
Sources
- Yonhap Infomax (English), “LG Electronics, GS E&C Partner with US-Based GRC to Develop AI Data Center Immersion Cooling Technology”, 14 October 2026. https://en.infomaxai.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=143246
- LG Electronics newsroom item 236209 (Korean), 14 October 2026. https://www.lge.co.kr/story/newsroom/236209
Related stories
- DigiCo Signs a 15-Year, 71MW Contract at SYD1 With an Unnamed Global Technology Firm
- 3C and Datalec Merge to Form 3C Datalec, a Liquid-Cooling and Data-Centre Services Group
- Vertiv Says It Delivered India’s First Direct-to-Chip Liquid-Cooling Deployment, for 30 MW
- Google Says Its Visakhapatnam AI Hub Will Use “Advanced Air Cooling”
- Data-Centre Build-Out and Pushback: AirTrunk’s $1B Japan Expansion
