Key insights
- Accelsius, a liquid cooling company for AI and HPC, appointed John Hewitt as CEO. This leadership change, coupled with recent $65M Series B funding, signals growth and expansion in the data center cooling market. While not a direct driver, it reflects ongoing investment in AI infrastructure, a positive indicator for semiconductor and technology sectors.
Accelsius announced that John Hewitt will become chief executive officer, replacing founding CEO Josh Claman, who will transition to executive chairman. The leadership change takes effect July 6.
Hewitt currently serves as CEO of Robertshaw Controls and previously led Vertiv’s $3.5 billion Americas business as president. He has been an Accelsius board member since the company’s founding and holds experience in data center infrastructure through roles at TE Connectivity, Motorola and Baker Hughes.
The Austin-based company develops two-phase liquid cooling systems for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing applications. Accelsius recently completed a $65 million Series B funding round led by Johnson Controls with participation from Legrand.
"Two-phase, direct-to-chip cooling is expected to become the standard for the most demanding AI and HPC workloads, and Accelsius is exceptionally well positioned to lead that transition," Hewitt said in a statement. He indicated his focus will be on operational scaling and manufacturing capability expansion.
As executive chairman, Claman will concentrate on strategic partnerships, customer relationships and capital strategy. Under his leadership since founding, Accelsius developed its NeuCool product line and established partnerships with the U.S. Department of Energy ARPA-E COOLERCHIPS program.
The company recently launched its NeuCool MR250 Coolant Distribution Unit and introduced the NeuCool IR150 integrated rack. Accelsius operates manufacturing facilities in Austin and was founded by Innventure Inc. (INV).