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Slb$SLB · filed: saw revenue fall 1.6% in FY2025 to $35.7BNew shipNext year $31.8B–$39.9B sealedCheck ▾Close ▴
What Slb filed
Saw revenue fall 1.6% in FY2025 to $35.7 billion, equity 47.6% of assets. Every figure links to the filing it came from on Slb’s card. New ship: no warning signs.
What the house said in advance
Revenue for the fiscal year after 2025-12-31 between $31.8B and $39.9B, an 80% range sealed on 26 Sept 2026 · receipt #aa682c · graded in public by the revenue in Slb’s next annual report.
Figures as filed with the SEC. Ranges, scores and boats are statistical descriptions of past filings, not ratings or recommendations. Reporting, not advice.
In plain words
SLB's **$4.1 billion** Kelvion buy is the sector's clearest admission that data center cooling margins exceed oilfield services over the next decade.
$4.1 billion
in cash
$1.8 billion
in annual revenue across industrial heat exchangers
$6.2 billion
on non-oilfield acquisitions since 2021
12 gigawatts
of cooling equipment annually
SLB agreed to acquire German thermal management specialist Kelvion for $4.1 billion in cash, the largest acquisition in the company's restructuring since it dropped "Schlumberger" from investor materials in 2022. The deal closes in Q2 2025 pending regulatory clearance in the EU and US. Kelvion generates $1.8 billion in annual revenue across industrial heat exchangers, precision cooling systems, and modular liquid cooling platforms used in hyperscale data centers. SLB will fold the business into its Digital & Integration division, which already provides edge computing and automation software to oil majors and now counts Microsoft, Google, and Amazon as thermal infrastructure clients.
The acquisition is the clearest signal yet that SLB views data center infrastructure as a hedge against long-cycle decline in upstream oil investment. The company has spent $6.2 billion on non-oilfield acquisitions since 2021, including Aker's subsea robotics unit and ChampionX's chemical measurement business. Kelvion adds 3,400 employees, most of them in Germany and the Netherlands, and manufacturing capacity rated for 12 gigawatts of cooling equipment annually. That positions SLB to compete directly with Vertiv and Schneider Electric in liquid-cooled rack deployments, the fastest-growing segment of data center capex. Kelvion's modular rear-door heat exchangers are already deployed in 47 hyperscale facilities globally, including three of the five largest AI training clusters in North America.
The deal matters because it confirms that oilfield service providers see data center build-out as structurally similar to offshore drilling: long-cycle capital projects with tight engineering tolerances and recurring service revenue. SLB's existing Digital & Integration unit posted 18% operating margins in Q4 2024, compared to 11% in its legacy oilfield services segment. The company has quietly hired 140 former data center engineers from Equinix, Digital Realty, and Iron Mountain over the past sixteen months. Kelvion's customer contracts include five-year service-level agreements with hyperscalers, a revenue model SLB has used in oilfield operations since the 1980s. The $4.1 billion price implies a 2.3x revenue multiple, in line with recent thermal infrastructure M&A but below the 3.1x average for pure-play data center equipment suppliers.
Operators and allocators should watch three follow-on developments. First, whether SLB announces a joint venture with a hyperscaler to co-locate modular nuclear reactors and cooling systems at existing data center campuses, likely in Texas or Oklahoma, before the end of Q3 2025. Second, whether Halliburton or Baker Hughes respond with their own cooling or power infrastructure acquisitions within six months, signaling broader sector rotation. Third, whether SLB's Digital & Integration segment begins reporting separate capex and backlog figures for data center thermal projects, which would clarify the unit's growth trajectory and margin sustainability. If that disclosure comes in the Q2 earnings call, expect the stock to re-rate closer to industrial automation multiples rather than oilfield services.
SLB shares closed up 4.2% on the announcement, outperforming the S&P 500 Energy Index by 310 basis points. The company will finance the acquisition with $2.9 billion in new senior notes and $1.2 billion from its existing credit facility, leaving net leverage at 1.4x EBITDA post-close. Kelvion's former private equity owners, Triton Partners and Nordic Capital, will exit at a 2.8x money multiple after holding the asset for six years.
Branded by POPS4 · proof in 60 seconds
For the principal
Track whether SLB announces modular nuclear co-location with a hyperscaler by Q3, signaling vertically integrated data center infrastructure plays.
For the operator
Watch for Halliburton or Baker Hughes counter-acquisitions in cooling or power within six months—confirms sector rotation into infrastructure capex.
For the house
Establishing small position in SLB ahead of Q2 earnings to capture potential segment disclosure and re-rating if Digital margins sustain above 18%.
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