Skip to Content News Archives Economy Energy Oil & Gas Renewables Electric Vehicles Mining Commodities Agriculture Real Estate Mortgages Mortgage Rates Finance Banking Insurance Fintech Cryptocurrency Work Wealth Smart Money Wealth Management Investor Personal Finance Family Finance Retirement Taxes High Net Worth FP Comment Executive Women Puzzmo Newsletters Financial Times Business Essentials More Innovation Information Technology FP500 Podcasts Small Business Lives Told Tails Told Shopping Financial Post Store Obituaries Place a Notice Advertising Advertising With Us Advertising Solutions Postmedia Ad Manager Sponsorship Requests Classifieds Place a Classifieds ad Working Profile Settings My Subscriptions Saved Articles My Offers Newsletters Customer Service FAQ News Economy Energy Mining Real Estate Finance Work Wealth Investor FP Comment Executive Women Puzzmo Newsletters Financial Times Business Essentials HomeInnovationB.C. startup Wafr says it has secured $100 million in funding for tech that slashes AI data-centre water useHyper-efficient cooling system can help AI data centres reduce water use by up to 95% and cooling power use by up to 80%Last updated 30 minutes ago You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account.Cooling vents on data centres in Virginia, U.S. Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/FileA Vancouver-based startup says it has raised $100 million from a group of private investors to advance its energy- and water-efficient cooling technology for artificial intelligencedata centres.Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman, and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorFounded in 2025, Wafr Technologies Ltd. announced on Thursday that it will use the new funds to launch an AI research lab and data centre, while furthering its commercialization efforts. The company will hire dozens of technical staff in the coming months, and is looking for new sites to build out its operations across the country.It intends to raise an additional $200 million “as soon as possible” from government funds and private investors, said Darrell Kopke, co-founder of Wafr, who also serves as the Vancouver executive director for the Creative Destruction Lab, a startup incubator program. He declined to name the current investors but said an announcement is coming soon.Get the latest headlines, breaking news and columns.By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.The next issue of Top Stories will soon be in your inbox.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againWafr says that it has developed a hyper-efficient cooling system that can help AI data centres reduce water use by up to 95 per cent and cooling power use by up to 80 per cent. Its proprietary technology is a thermal battery that captures cooling capacity when grid electricity is cheap and releases it as required at peak times.Large-scale AI data centres, which house clusters of tightly-packed advanced computing chips that generate heat while in use, consume vast amounts of water and energy to keep systems cool. The bigger facilities operated by American hyperscalers — the major cloud computing providers like Amazon.com Inc., Google LLC and Microsoft Corp. — manage AI data centres that are 100 megawatts and above.A 100-MW AI data centre in the U.S. consumes around 2 million litres of water per day, which is on par with the water consumption of 6,500 households, according to a 2025 analysis from the International Energy Agency.“(This) crazy, massive market has a major bottleneck, which is power and water,” Kopke said. “Our technology virtually eliminates the need for water and stops evaporative water for cooling,” he said.Kopke said that the company has already launched commercialization efforts and has signed letters of intent with international partners involved in constructing AI data centres.Wafr is prioritizing the United States market, alongside European countries like Germany.“The U.S. has 5,300 data centres. The country that has the next highest amount of declared data centres is Germany at 400. It would be impossible for us to ignore the U.S. It is also the market that has the least sustainable AI and that’s something we can fix,” he said.Cooling technology has become a lucrative opportunity.In March, U.S. company Ecolab Inc. announced that it was purchasing Calgary-based CoolIT Systems Inc., which makes liquid cooling products for data centres, for US$4.75 billion in one of the largest-ever Canadian tech takeovers.American Big Tech companies including Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc., are expected to spend over US$700 billion this year to accelerate their AI infrastructure buildouts, and are on track to surpass US$5 trillion on AI and data centre spend by 2030, according to a June report by Goldman Sachs Group Inc.Advancing Canada’s AI infrastructure is also a key priority for Mark Carney‘s Liberal government. Ottawa earlier this year launched a public call for proposals to build large-scale AI data centres in the country.Kopke and Bikram Singh co-founded Wafr in March 2025. Singh spent nearly two decades in the cooling industry across the Middle East and India and completed his Master’s of Business Administration at the University of British Columbia under Kopke. Join the Conversation This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.