Omen AI buys Aquatic Labs for $16 million to build a combined sensor for data-center cooling fluids

Omen AI, a startup that watches the liquids flowing through AI data-center cooling systems, is buying Aquatic Labs, a maker of real-time water sensors. TechCrunch reported on November 2 that the deal is worth $16 million in a mix of cash and stock. Most details below come from that report and from the companies' own statements to TechCrunch.

Two sensors, one fluid

Liquid cooling is becoming standard for dense AI chips, and the fluid has to stay clean. Omen's sensor sits on the cooling loop and looks for signs of trouble such as failing valves or bacterial growth that could restrict water flow. Today, operators typically send fluid samples to a lab and wait days for results, TechCrunch notes. According to a June funding announcement, Omen uses spectroscopic sensors to analyze metal content, biological contaminants, wear and fluid degradation, and sells both a fixed sensor and a portable unit.

Aquatic Labs brings a complementary device that measures alkalinity continuously. Its chief executive, physicist Allan Adams, previously taught at MIT and worked at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on ocean sensing; he becomes chief science officer of the combined company. Adams told TechCrunch that pairing the two would give a "much richer picture of the water and the fluid." The plan is to fold both technologies into a single sensor, which the companies expect to bring to market by early 2027. An investor in the filtration sector introduced the two founders.

Scale and open questions

Omen was founded in 2024 by chief executive Zach Laberge and raised a $31 million Series A in June led by Nava Ventures, bringing its total funding to $41.5 million, according to Pulse 2.0. Laberge told TechCrunch that Omen's first sensors already watch over chips drawing 250 to 300 megawatts, worth an estimated $5 billion to $7 billion, and that the company targets 1 gigawatt of monitored chips by the end of 2027. Customers were not named, and these figures come from the company.

The pitch is economic as well as technical: earlier warnings could let operators keep coolant in service longer and avoid costly fluid dumps and shutdowns. TechCrunch also cites Water Foundation estimates that US data centers use 17 to 19 billion gallons of water a year for cooling, a figure expected to triple within five years. Whether continuous monitoring meaningfully reduces that consumption has not been independently shown.