Samsung Electronics has broken ground on a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) production line in Gwangju, South Korea, as it ramps up its push into cooling systems for AI data centers and advanced manufacturing facilities.
The company will invest about KRW 240 billion in the new line at the third campus of its Gwangju manufacturing complex. The facility, targeted to begin full-scale operations in early 2028, will become FlaktGroup's 15th global production base.
Samsung held the groundbreaking ceremony on Sept. 21 for the FlaktGroup HVAC production line at its Gwangju site. The new plant will serve rapidly growing demand in South Korea and East Asia from AI data centers, semiconductor and battery plants, and large commercial buildings.
Samsung acquired FlaktGroup, a European HVAC specialist, last year and has been accelerating investment in the company's production network. In August, it began operating a new facility in Pune, Maharashtra, India, with annual capacity of up to 6,500 units.
With the Gwangju site added to the network, Samsung plans to combine FlaktGroup's central HVAC expertise with Samsung's large-scale manufacturing capabilities. The company aims to build an end-to-end HVAC business system in Gwangju spanning product development, manufacturing, installation and after-sales maintenance.
The new Gwangju line will produce a range of cooling and HVAC equipment for AI data centers. Its main products will include coolant distribution units, or CDUs, a core component in liquid-cooling systems; fan wall units, or FWUs; computer room air handlers, or CRAHs; and air handling units, or AHUs, for large buildings.
The investment is expected to expand the role of Samsung's Gwangju complex. Already a manufacturing base for Samsung's AI-enabled home appliances, the site will be repositioned as a combined production hub for consumer appliances and business-to-business HVAC systems.
Samsung said it would strengthen safety management during construction and the production ramp-up process, while also expanding local hiring and support for partner companies.
“The groundbreaking of the new FlaktGroup production line marks another milestone in advancing our HVAC business, one of our key growth engines,” Noh Tae-moon, president and head of Samsung Electronics' Device eXperience Division, said. “We will develop the Gwangju facility into an advanced manufacturing hub that produces both AI home appliances and next-generation HVAC solutions.”
