Omen AI, a startup building real-time sensors for the fluids that cool data center chips, is acquiring competitor Aquatic Labs in a $16 million cash-and-stock deal, TechCrunch reported on Monday, 2 November.
Omen founder Zach Laberge told TechCrunch that its initial sensors will be monitoring chips pulling in 250 to 300 MW of power by the end of the year, with the hope of reaching the equivalent of 1 GW of chips by the end of 2027. That target is roughly 3.3 to 4 times the year-end figure, by our arithmetic.
The key insight: Omen AI is acquiring competitor Aquatic Labs in a $16 million cash-and-stock deal to combine two real-time water sensors for data center cooling systems, and its founder told TechCrunch the sensors will be monitoring 250 to 300 MW of chips by year end.
Omen AI was founded in 2024 and raised a $31 million Series A in June, according to TechCrunch. It is building a real-time sensor to determine whether valves are failing or whether bacteria growth threatens to choke off water flow in a data center’s cooling system, the report says.
Today, monitoring cooling fluids involves sending samples away to a laboratory in a multi-day process, TechCrunch reports. Both startups were building real-time water sensors with complementary technology: Omen’s sensors looked for elements in the water, while the Aquatic Labs sensor tests its alkalinity, according to the report.
Putting the two technologies in one sensor creates a “much richer picture of the water and the fluid”, Aquatic Labs chief executive Allan Adams told TechCrunch. Adams, a physicist and former MIT professor who worked on ocean sensing, becomes Omen’s chief science officer, the report says. The combined teams expect an integrated sensor on the market by early next year.
Chips monitored by Omen AI’s sensors: 250-300 MW by the end of 2026 and a hoped-for 1 GW equivalent by the end of 2027, as founder Zach Laberge told TechCrunch on 2 November 2026. The 3.3-4x ratio is our arithmetic.
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Why Operators Pay for It
US data centers use 17 to 19 billion gallons of water a year to cool their chips, and that number is expected to triple in the next five years, TechCrunch reports, citing the Water Foundation.
When a fluid system goes out of balance, operators typically dump the water rather than risk damage to their equipment, which means shutting down operations until the system is restored, according to the report. Laberge put the chips his sensors will monitor by year end at about $5 billion to $7 billion in value.
On investors’ growing skepticism of the AI buildout, Laberge told TechCrunch: “We’re working customers on stuff they’re building today or have already built, and so it doesn’t really affect us because all of those projects were financed 12 months ago.”
As we read it, Omen is selling uptime rather than water savings alone: TechCrunch reports that operators typically dump fluid and shut down when a cooling system goes out of balance.
As we read the deal, it bundles two measurements into one device, which the companies say gives a richer picture than either sensor alone.
Allan Adams, chief executive, Aquatic Labs, to TechCrunch
“much richer picture of the water and the fluid”
Three Implications
FOR DATA CENTER OPERATORS TechCrunch reports that monitoring cooling fluids today involves sending samples to a laboratory in a multi-day process, which the combined sensor aims to replace with real-time readings.
FOR WATER USE US data centers use 17 to 19 billion gallons of water a year for cooling, a figure expected to triple in five years, TechCrunch reports, citing the Water Foundation.
FOR OMEN Founder Zach Laberge told TechCrunch he hopes Omen’s sensors will cover the equivalent of 1 GW of chips by the end of 2027, against 250 to 300 MW by the end of this year.
The framework reads: “The structural bottleneck isn’t computing, it’s electrons.”
As we read it, Omen’s pitch sits next to that power constraint: keeping the cooling loop healthy so chips that already have power stay online. The framework is the owner’s argument and does not discuss Omen AI.
TechCrunch does not report the split between cash and stock, Omen’s revenue or valuation, or how many customers either company has. The megawatt figures and the value of the chips are Laberge’s statements to TechCrunch. The 3.3 to 4 times range is our arithmetic. We did not contact Omen AI or Aquatic Labs.
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Omen AI is buying Aquatic Labs in a $16 million cash-and-stock deal to combine two real-time water sensors for data center cooling systems, TechCrunch reported. Its founder says Omen’s sensors will be monitoring 250 to 300 MW of chips by year end.
A note on sourcing. Deal terms, megawatt figures and quotes are from TechCrunch’s 2 November report, which cites the Water Foundation for the water-use figures. The 3.3 to 4 times range is our arithmetic. We did not contact Omen AI or Aquatic Labs.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
