New York, Jan 6, 2026, 15:15 EST — Regular session
- JCI shares fall as Nvidia’s CEO says next-generation chips could cut data-center cooling needs
- Barclays flags HVAC names as exposed; investors reassess a hot AI-linked trade
- Johnson Controls’ next quarterly update is expected in early February
Johnson Controls International (JCI) fell 5.5% to $114.79 in afternoon trading on Tuesday after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the chipmaker’s next-generation Vera Rubin platform could sharply reduce cooling needs in data centers and that “no water chillers are necessary for data centres.” The stock has traded between $108.41 and $120.39, and other heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) names also weakened. Barclays analysts led by Julian Mitchell said investors “should not take their comments lightly” and estimated data centers account for a low-double-digit share of Johnson Controls’ sales. 1
The remarks hit a corner of the market that has become a proxy bet on the buildout of artificial intelligence infrastructure. Data centers pack dense chips that run hot, forcing operators to spend on cooling and power gear to keep servers online.
If the next wave of chips runs cooler, customers may not need as many large chiller systems, or they may shift budgets toward other parts of the stack. That matters now because investors have priced in years of heavy data-center investment, and the cooling trade has been one of the cleanest ways to express it.
Johnson Controls, meanwhile, has been pushing deeper into the data-center theme. The company said on Monday it will invest up to $60 million over the next five years to expand its Innovation Centre in Singapore and grow engineering teams there to 90–100 roles, aiming to speed development of next-generation cooling and thermal management. “As AI workloads surge and data centres demand more energy, sustainability has become an imperative,” said Anu Rathninde, the firm’s president for Asia Pacific. 2
Tuesday’s drop pulled the shares away from recent highs. JCI’s 52-week range is $68.03 to $124.07, MarketWatch data show, leaving traders focused on whether the stock can stabilize after testing the lower end of its day’s range. 3
The risk for investors is that the market is reacting to an early-stage roadmap that may not translate into immediate changes in how data centers are built. Operators still design for redundancy, retrofits and uptime, and chip architectures can shift before wide deployment.
