Orbital Industries secures $50M to tackle AI cooling crisis

London-based technology firm, Orbital Industries, has raised $50 million in Series B funding to address one of artificial intelligence’s fastest-growing challenges: overheating computer hardware.

Founded in 2022, the company is developing non-toxic cooling systems for next-generation graphics processing units (GPUs), which power modern AI models. The funding round was led by venture firm Plural, with participation from NVIDIA’s investment arm and several existing backers.

At the core of Orbital’s innovation is “Orb,” an artificial intelligence engine capable of simulating up to 100,000 atoms on a single GPU, significantly outperforming competing systems. This enables the company to design advanced materials in months rather than the decade typically required.

Its first product is a PFAS-free dielectric cooling fluid, designed to comply with tightening environmental regulations in Europe and the United States. Orbital is also building modular data centre systems that can be deployed in as little as six months.

The global data centre infrastructure market, currently valued at $344 billion, is projected to exceed $2 trillion by 2032. As AI systems grow more powerful, Orbital aims to ensure the physical infrastructure needed to support them can keep pace.