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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 redirects **$4.1B** from oilfield capex into AI cooling as hyperscale thermal density outpaces hydrocarbon services margin expansion.
$4.1 billion
in cash and stock
$1.2 billion
in annual revenue across industrial cooling
28%
of current sales
18 months
of margin compression in its core reservoir performance and…
SLB agreed to acquire Kelvion, a German thermal management specialist, for $4.1 billion in cash and stock. The transaction marks the Houston-based oilfield services giant's largest non-energy acquisition and its clearest bet that AI data center infrastructure will outpace hydrocarbon services growth through 2030. Kelvion generates approximately $1.2 billion in annual revenue across industrial cooling, HVAC, and heat exchanger systems, with data center exposure representing roughly 28% of current sales. The deal is expected to close in Q3 2025 pending regulatory clearance in the EU and US.
SLB's move follows 18 months of margin compression in its core reservoir performance and well construction segments, where North American rig counts declined 11% year-over-year through March. The company's digital and integration business—already housing its Neuro AI platform and Delfi cognitive E&P environment—generated $2.8 billion in 2024 revenue, up 19% from the prior year. Kelvion's liquid cooling technology, which handles heat loads exceeding 300 watts per rack, directly addresses the thermal bottleneck in next-generation GPU clusters deployed by hyperscalers. Microsoft, Google, and Meta collectively ordered cooling capacity for an estimated 4.2 gigawatts of AI compute in 2024, triple the 2023 figure. SLB believes it can cross-sell Kelvion's systems into existing relationships with energy clients building private AI infrastructure for reservoir modeling and seismic interpretation.
The acquisition repositions $4.1 billion in capital that would traditionally finance drilling equipment or subsea technology toward a market where thermal density is rising faster than Moore's Law. NVIDIA's Blackwell architecture, shipping in volume this quarter, dissipates up to 1,200 watts per GPU, compared to 700 watts for the previous Hopper generation. Liquid cooling penetration in hyperscale data centers is forecast to reach 62% by 2027, up from 14% today, according to Uptime Institute's latest infrastructure survey. Kelvion holds long-term supply agreements with three of the top five cloud providers, though SLB declined to name them in the acquisition announcement. The deal also gives SLB exposure to European industrial clients, where Kelvion's plate heat exchangers serve pharmaceutical and chemical processing facilities that are themselves deploying AI for process optimization.
Operators should monitor SLB's Q2 earnings call in late July for updated capex allocation between legacy oilfield services and the combined digital-thermal unit. The company will likely disclose what percentage of Kelvion's order book is tied to multi-year hyperscale commitments versus spot industrial sales. Watch whether SLB integrates Kelvion's engineering team into its existing New Energy division or spins it into a standalone infrastructure subsidiary. The Biden administration's AI infrastructure executive order, expected in final form by September, may include federal loan guarantees for domestic cooling equipment manufacturing, which would directly benefit Kelvion's US production footprint.
SLB's CFO noted on the acquisition call that Kelvion's EBITDA margins of 22% exceed the company's oilfield services margin of 18%, and the thermal business requires 40% less working capital per dollar of revenue. The company did not address analyst questions about how it will retain Kelvion's European engineering talent or whether it plans to offshore any manufacturing to its existing facilities in Malaysia and Brazil.
Branded by POPS4 · proof in 60 seconds
For the principal
Track whether SLB's oilfield peer group follows with similar non-energy acquisitions, signaling structural capital rotation away from hydrocarbons.
For the operator
Monitor Kelvion order book disclosure in Q2 earnings for multi-year hyperscale contract visibility and European industrial AI exposure percentage.
For the house
Short-duration call spread on SLB into July earnings, sized for thermal business margin accretion surprise against oilfield services compression baseline.
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