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开利正考虑加大在中国的人工智能数据中心及绿色能源领域的投资 - 2026年06月11日
Carrier mulls larger investment in nation on AI data center, green push
Michael Gierges, president of climate solutions for Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa at Carrier. China's push to expand computing infrastructure and advance green urban development will create fresh growth opportunities for Carrier Global Corp to deepen investment in manufacturing, innovation and digital technologies in the country during the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period, said a senior executive.
As China accelerates the development of data centers, green urban infrastructure and artificial intelligence applications, Carrier — a United States-based intelligent climate and energy solutions provider and parent company of Toshiba HVAC and Viessmann Climate Solutions — will align its business priorities with these emerging opportunities while exporting products made at its China plants to markets worldwide.
Michael Gierges, president of climate solutions for Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa at Carrier, said China is no longer viewed simply as a regional market, but as a key driver of the group's global growth strategy.
"Cooling systems account for a significant share of data center energy consumption, making efficiency improvements increasingly important," said Gierges. "Through our QuantumLeap solution, we integrate intelligent cooling, digital controls and predictive monitoring technologies to optimize thermal management and improve energy performance across data center operations."
Beyond cooling technologies, Carrier is also expanding AI applications across its building solutions business.
"We have developed AI-enabled building control solutions for the Chinese market that help optimize building performance, improve energy efficiency and enable smarter, more adaptive building operations," he added.
With China entering a new era of green and innovation-led growth, the Florida-headquartered company has continued to expand its manufacturing footprint. It launched a new air-cooled chiller production line at its facility in Shanghai's Baoshan district, with investment exceeding 100 million yuan ($14.8 million) in January.
Equipped with digital, automated and intelligent technologies, the facility delivers a capacity increase of more than 30 percent compared with pre-upgrade levels.
Together with additional production lines yet to be commissioned and supporting facilities, the project's total investment is expected to reach approximately 400 million yuan.
Building on this, Carrier inaugurated an integrated commercial HVAC testing center in May in Shanghai to strengthen its capabilities in energy-efficiency validation and performance optimization, particularly for data centers.
Gierges said Carrier also sees China as an increasingly important hub for innovation and exports, with centrifugal and screw chiller technologies developed by its local engineering teams now being deployed in markets around the world.
"Collaboration with local partners will remain central to our China strategy," Gierges said, adding that the company's partnerships with Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, will help advance digital transformation and AI infrastructure development.
He also highlighted the company's long-standing partnership with State-owned Shanghai Electric Group Co, which is expected to support sustainable urban renewal, reinforcing its long-term confidence in the Chinese market.
Supported by more than 5,000 employees in China, Carrier currently operates seven manufacturing bases, three research and development centers, and over 70 branch offices across the country. One of its companies in Shanghai received a National May 1st Labor Award, one of China's highest honors for organizations, earlier this year.
Wang Xiaohong, a researcher at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges in Beijing, said China's strengths in industrial supply chains and innovation ecosystems continue to attract long-term investment from multinationals.
China saw the actual use of foreign direct investment in high-tech industries surge 20.3 percent year-on-year to 116.33 billion yuan in the first four months, accounting for 40.4 percent of the country's total FDI, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed.
Source: China Daily
