{"title":"Johnson Controls vs LG Electronics: Cooling & thermal compared","url":"https://www.frontiertechintelligence.com/compare/johnson-controls-vs-lg-electronics","comparison":"Johnson Controls ranks 66 on the AI Infra 100 with a score of 88; LG Electronics ranks 68 with 88. Johnson Controls is ahead on commercials. LG Electronics is ahead on deployment. Level on production, progress, technology, positioning, firepower and leverage. Johnson Controls is based in Cork, Ireland, LG Electronics in Seoul, South Korea. Johnson Controls is named in 5 signals and LG Electronics in 102.","companies":[{"name":"Johnson Controls","url":"https://www.frontiertechintelligence.com/companies/johnson-controls","city":"Cork","country":"Ireland","stage":null,"founded":null,"last_round":null,"positioning":"Johnson Controls is no longer a building-automation company with a data center side business. Data center revenue is a high-teens percentage of fiscal 2026 sales and the CFO has said it could reach roughly one-third of total company revenue within three to five years. Fiscal Q3 2026 organic sales rose 10 percent to USD 6.6 billion with Applied HVAC posting high-teens growth driven by data center cooling; adjusted segment EBITA margin widened 220 basis points to 19.8 percent; backlog reached a record USD 21 billion, up more than 30 percent, with Americas orders up 37 percent. The technical position rests on two things: NVIDIA certification for its cooling distribution units, with a pipeline above USD 1 billion and shipments beginning, plus a jointly developed AI-factory thermal reference guide; and an absorption chiller reference design the company says cuts cooling electrical demand by approximately 44 percent at a 1 gigawatt AI factory by converting waste heat into cooling, unlocking 97 megawatts of additional compute capacity, which changes site selection economics for hyperscalers. It released the YORK YK-HT two-stage economized centrifugal chiller and exited residential HVAC to focus the portfolio. Its relevance doubles because it led the Accelsius USD 65 million Series B on 2026-01-12, putting it on both sides of the two-phase versus single-phase question.","assessed_in":{"domain":"AI Core","list":"AI Infra 100","rank":66,"score":88,"tier":"member","scores":{"gate_ne":["firepower"],"leverage":10,"position":8,"progress":10,"firepower":10,"commercial":10,"deployment":8,"production":8,"technology":8},"why":"Johnson Controls supplies YORK chillers, absorption chillers, cooling distribution units and high-temperature heat pumps, including products designed for high-density AI data centers and industrial electrification.","segment":"Cooling & thermal","layer":"Power, cooling & thermal"},"signals_total":5,"facts_total":24},{"name":"LG Electronics","url":"https://www.frontiertechintelligence.com/companies/lg-electronics","city":"Seoul","country":"South Korea","stage":null,"founded":null,"last_round":null,"positioning":"Scored on the data center cooling unit only, as instructed. On 2026-07-27 LG secured NVIDIA AI Factory validation for its 600 kW Coolant Distribution Unit, passing more than 100 technical evaluation criteria covering cooling performance, reliability and failover, becoming one of a small group globally to clear that verification for this equipment class. The direct-to-chip unit delivers coolant to GPUs and CPUs for a hybrid cooling system, and can pair with LG's Data Centre Cooling Control Manager for predictive control and centralised monitoring. LG validates the whole chain at a dedicated Chip-to-Chiller site in Pyeongtaek. Commercial substance: LG has secured cooling projects for hyperscale facilities in North America and for the SM+ Data Center, an AI-ready facility in Jakarta, and intends to seek NVIDIA certification for 1 MW, 2.5 MW and 4 MW capacities. It also joined SK Enmove, GRC and Flex on liquid immersion cooling in October 2025, putting it on both the direct-to-chip and immersion sides. Commercial scores 2 because no data center cooling revenue is disclosed and the scoped row excludes group revenue.","assessed_in":{"domain":"AI Core","list":"AI Infra 100","rank":68,"score":88,"tier":"member","scores":{"gate_ne":["firepower"],"leverage":10,"position":8,"progress":10,"firepower":10,"commercial":4,"deployment":10,"production":8,"technology":8},"why":"LG Electronics supplies data-center cooling, including coolant distribution units, liquid-immersion cooling and predictive cooling controls, for hyperscale and other data centers.","segment":"Cooling & thermal","layer":"Power, cooling & thermal"},"signals_total":102,"facts_total":24}],"note":"Assessment by Frontier Tech Intelligence; facts and signals carry their sources."}