Omen AI buys Aquatic Labs for $16 million to fix data center water

Omen AI is acquiring rival Aquatic Labs for $16 million in cash and stock, seven months after closing a $31 million Series A. The deal, confirmed by both founders, merges two real-time water-sensing technologies aimed at one of AI infrastructure's least glamorous costs: cooling.

The problem is large and getting larger. US data centers consume 17 to 19 billion gallons of water every year to cool their chips, according to the Water Foundation, and that figure is expected to triple within five years. Today, operators monitor cooling fluids by sending samples to a laboratory and waiting days for results.

Omen AI, founded in 2024, wants to replace that process with a sensor that reads the fluid in real time. Its hardware detects failing valves and bacterial growth that can choke off water flow. Aquatic Labs built a complementary sensor that tests the water's alkalinity. Folded into one device, the two measurements deliver a "much richer picture of the water and the fluid," Aquatic Labs CEO Allan Adams told TechCrunch.

How the deal came together

An investor in the filtration space introduced Omen founder Zach Laberge to Adams. The two startups were solving the same problem from different angles, and the founders concluded that a single combined sensor beat two partial ones.

The merger also unites two very different résumés. Laberge dropped out of college to run his first company, which performed similar fluid analysis on hydraulic systems in heavy construction machinery. Adams spent much of his career as a physicist at MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, developing advanced ocean sensing technology, before turning to commercial sensors.

Adams now serves as Omen's chief science officer. The combined team is integrating both technologies into one sensor and expects it to reach the market by early next year.

What is at stake for operators?

The pitch rests on uptime and waste. When a fluid system drifts out of spec, data center operators usually dump the water rather than risk damaging expensive equipment, then shut down operations until the system is restored. Real-time monitoring lets operators keep the same fluid in service longer and cut cleanup costs.

The near-term numbers are concrete. Laberge told TechCrunch that Omen's initial sensors will monitor chips drawing 250 to 300 MW of power by the end of this year — roughly $5 to $7 billion worth of hardware — with the goal of covering the equivalent of 1 GW of chips by the end of 2027.

Does the market wobble matter?

The deal lands during a rough stretch for AI infrastructure sentiment. Companies once estimated as much as $4 trillion in AI infrastructure spending by 2030, but skeptical investors have sent hyperscaler stocks plummeting in recent days.

Laberge is unperturbed. His business starts where construction ends.

"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," Laberge told TechCrunch. "Our view is, if there's tightness, this is still going to be the biggest market in human history, even if you sliced it in half."

Beyond the data center

Adams sees a second market in what happens to the water after it leaves. Data center discharge flows into municipal water systems, and treating that stream responsibly requires measurement.

"Water goes into data centers, and then it comes out and gets dumped into municipal water, and you want that whole process to happen in a way that's as safe and responsible as possible — and that means you got to measure stuff," Adams told TechCrunch.

If the combined sensor ships on schedule in early 2026, Omen will be selling into a market where water consumption is compounding faster than almost any other utility cost in computing — with a product that bills after the concrete is poured.