The Third Campus of Samsung Electronics' Gwangju plant, where the company will build a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning production line. The line is scheduled to start running in early 2028.SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS
Samsung Electronics will invest 240 billion won ($170 million) to expand its longtime home appliance base in Gwangju into a production hub for cooling systems used in AI data centers.
The company said Wednesday it will build a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) production facility spanning 21,800 square meters (234,700 square feet) at the third campus of its Gwangju complex in Buk District. The facility, roughly the size of three football fields, is scheduled to begin operations in early 2028.
The investments were part of the agreement signed the same day by Samsung Electronics, FläktGroup’s Korean unit and the Jeonnam-Gwangju Special Metropolitan City government at the local government’s Gwangju offices.
Jeonnam–Gwangju Mayor Min Hyung-bae, Samsung Electronics Executive Vice President and head of Digital Appliances Business Kim Cheol-gi and head of FläktGroup’s Korean unit and Samsung Electronics’ HVAC Business Team Im Seong-taek attended the ceremony.
Samsung Electronics opened the Gwangju complex in 1989, making the new line its first major production facility investment there in 37 years. The complex began as a home appliance manufacturing base and now makes products including Bespoke AI Refrigerator Family Hub models, Bespoke AI Laundry Combo washer-dryers and Bespoke AI WindFree air conditioners.
Samsung Electronics will use the new line to move beyond simply expanding production of residential air conditioners. The company plans to broaden its business into central HVAC systems that control temperature and energy use across data centers, factories and large buildings.
Samsung Electronics acquired German HVAC specialist FläktGroup last year. The Gwangju line will bring the company’s technology and manufacturing capabilities into a Korean production site and become FläktGroup’s 15th manufacturing facility worldwide.
The Gwangju facility will primarily produce coolant distribution units (CDU) for AI data centers. CDUs precisely control the temperature and pressure of coolant before supplying it to server cooling equipment. The coolant then carries heat away from the servers.
Key FläktGroup heating, ventilation and air conditioning products that Samsung Electronics will build on its new Gwangju line. Clockwise from top left: an air handling unit, a fan wall unit, a coolant distribution unit and a computer room air handler.SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS
AI data centers generate large amounts of heat because they run high-performance chips at scale. Reliable cooling is essential to maintaining server performance and energy efficiency. Liquid cooling has become increasingly important as conventional air cooling reaches its limits with increasingly heat-intensive AI servers.
Samsung Electronics also plans to produce fan wall units and computer room air handling units for data center air cooling, as well as air handling units for large buildings. The company plans to use both liquid- and air-cooling systems to target AI data centers and advanced manufacturing facilities in Korea and overseas.
Samsung Electronics will also combine FläktGroup’s HVAC technology with its own platform for connecting and controlling heating and cooling equipment throughout a building. The company aims to offer integrated systems that manage both HVAC equipment and overall building energy use.
Samsung said it aims to turn HVAC into a new growth engine and become a global top-tier company in the sector by 2030.
“This investment in the new production line in Korea will serve as a solid foundation for achieving this goal,” Kim said.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
