SLB has agreed to buy Kelvion, a heat-exchange and thermal-management maker founded more than 100 years ago, for about $3.4 billion in cash. SLB will also assume roughly $0.7 billion of Kelvion's debt, putting the deal at about 11 times Kelvion's estimated 2026 EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) before synergies, or about 8.5 times once SLB's expected cost and revenue synergies are counted.
The sellers are Apollo-managed funds, Kelvion's majority owner, and funds advised by Triton, which holds a minority stake. The deal still needs regulatory approval and is expected to close in the first half of 2027.
Why SLB wants Kelvion
SLB chief executive Olivier Le Peuch said "AI is driving the most significant infrastructure investment cycle in our lifetime." He said the deal more than doubles SLB's revenue opportunity per gigawatt of delivered data center capacity and moves the company toward more integrated data center infrastructure, combining Kelvion's cooling technology with SLB's existing engineering, modular manufacturing, offsite construction and digital work.
Gavin Rennick, president of SLB's New Energy and Industrial business, said thermal management is "central to that challenge" of running increasingly complex, energy-intensive data centers, and that the deal lets SLB build more integrated cooling into its modular infrastructure offering.
Kelvion's business
Kelvion is expected to generate revenue of about $2.3 billion to $2.4 billion in 2026, with adjusted EBITDA of about $350 million to $400 million. Data centers are its largest and fastest-growing end market, expected to bring in $1.2 billion to $1.3 billion of that revenue in 2026. The rest of Kelvion's business covers heat pumps, renewables, carbon capture and processing markets, where thermal management also plays a role.
SLB's data center math
SLB's Data Center Solutions business has grown fast: revenue is expected to post a compound annual growth rate above 90 percent between 2024 and 2026, and delivered capacity is expected to pass 2 gigawatts cumulatively by the end of the year. That business combines modular manufacturing, offsite construction, engineering and digital tools to build data center infrastructure, an approach SLB says can cut onsite construction complexity and shorten time to operation by up to 40 percent.
| Deal term | Figure |
|---|---|
| Cash price | ~$3.4 billion |
| Debt assumed | ~$0.7 billion |
| Multiple (before synergies) | ~11x 2026 EBITDA |
| Multiple (with synergies) | ~8.5x 2026 EBITDA |
| Expected close | H1 2027 |
| Annual synergy target | ~$120 million within 3 years |
What the combined business targets
SLB and Kelvion together are expected to generate more than $2 billion in data center revenue and about $300 million in adjusted EBITDA on a pro-forma 2026 basis. SLB is targeting $4.5 billion to $5 billion of revenue and $700 million to $800 million of adjusted EBITDA for the combined data center solutions business in 2028. SLB expects the deal to add to earnings per share and free cash flow per share within the first 12 months after closing, and says its net debt-to-EBITDA ratio will stay within its stated through-cycle target of up to 1.5 times. SLB has reaffirmed plans to return more than $4 billion to shareholders in 2026 through dividends and share buybacks, and expects 2027 shareholder returns to be at least in line with 2026, with formal targets to be set during annual planning.
