
The 2027 Deadline That's About to Reprice Water Companies (Data Center Water)
From (don't) Waste Water! | Water Tech to Solve the World by Antoine Walter
April 22, 2026 · 30 min · Season 14 · Episode 7
About this episode
The episode discusses the impending repricing of water companies in the data center sector and the strategic moves by various players in the market.
Who Buys the First Data Center Water Company? And When Does the Repricing Start? Data center water treatment is a $1.1 billion market growing nearly 15% per year, with 60% of spending recurring - generating an "infinite money glitch" for the righty designed water tech companies. So, strategic buyers, private equity sponsors, and VC-backed platforms are racing to consolidate water tech expertise. Meanwhile, hyperscalers spending $50 billion a year on infrastructure have made zero water acquisitions... for how long? 🌶️ KEY SPICES 🌶️ 💵 A $660M recurring-revenue pocket nobody priced as SaaS - 60% of data center water spend is OPEX, not capex (Sustainability at its best) 🏗️ AEA Investors' CRB Water playbook: a $13.2M Missouri distributor turned national data center water platform in 24 months through five add-on acquisitions 📈 Evoqua's 17x EBITDA exit to Xylem in 2023 as the template - and AEA ran that play too 🌐 Microsoft's water use efficiency (WUE, liters per kWh of compute) sits at 0.2, roughly 5x better than Google's 0.96 and 6.5x better than Apple's 1.3 🏢 Amazon's Kiva Systems DNA applied to water: write the blueprint internally, then acquire the builder when the…
People in this episode
Host: Antoine Walter
Topics covered
- data center water treatment
- water technology
- market growth
- acquisitions
- sustainability
- investment strategies
Keywords
- data center
- water treatment
- market growth
- acquisitions
- sustainability
- investment
- OPEX
- recurring revenue
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Microsoft, Google, Apple, Amazon, Evoqua, Xylem, AEA Investors, Gradiant, CRB Water, Infinite Cooling
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