35.8B! Midea Building Technologies ranks first in multiple categories, setting a benchmark through the cycle for ToB samples

On the evening of March 30th, Midea Group (000333.SZ) released its annual report showing that its leading ToB business, Midea Building Technologies, achieved a new high in performance, with revenue reaching 35.8 billion yuan in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 25.7%. At the same time, the gross profit margin of this business reached 30.58%, the highest among all group segments in both growth rate and gross margin, demonstrating strong profitability and growth potential.

Behind these results are product and technological innovations from Midea Building Technologies, such as the launch last year of the “Smart Accounting” MDV9 multi-split system, which shifts building green retrofits from cost to investment; as well as continuous innovation in business models, from one-stop solutions covering HVAC and elevators to value co-creation and sharing throughout the entire lifecycle of green buildings with users. These initiatives enable Midea Building Technologies to withstand cycles, grow steadily, and find new growth space in investments like AI data center liquid cooling.

From commercial air conditioning to smart elevators, providing comprehensive smart building solutions

By 2025, competition in the HVAC market will intensify, and demand structures will adjust. Amidst this changing environment, Midea Building Technologies maintains its leading position: commercial multi-split systems grow against the trend during industry adjustments, with centrifugal compressor sales reaching new highs; multi-brand elevator businesses accelerate integration, becoming new growth drivers.

According to industry online data, in 2025, Midea’s domestic market share in the central air conditioning industry exceeded 20%, maintaining the number one position for 11 consecutive years. Among them, the domestic market share of commercial multi-split systems surpassed 28%, ranking first for five consecutive years; centrifugal compressors hold over 16% of the domestic market, ranking first in the industry. Notably, Midea’s magnetic levitation centrifugal compressors are the top sellers domestically, with year-over-year growth exceeding 80%. Midea’s self-developed magnetic levitation technology, from centrifugal compressors to high-temperature heat pumps and air compressors, offers high efficiency and stable operation across a wide load range, providing efficient “productivity tools” for scenarios like precision manufacturing, food processing, and data centers. Its Chongqing water machine factory is the world’s first full-process AI-enabled “lighthouse factory” in the HVAC industry, providing a solid foundation for efficient delivery and quality assurance.

Midea Building Technologies has created multiple benchmark projects in industrial, computing power, and urban renewal fields: for Jiangfeng Electronics’ Huanghu target material factory, it built the industry’s first rooftop prefabricated high-efficiency cooling plant with an annual comprehensive energy efficiency ratio above 5.1; for a food factory in Xiamen, it deployed the first domestic food industry system with over 4 tons of steam capacity using fully variable-frequency ultra-high-temperature steam heat pumps, recovering waste heat to supply 155°C high-temperature steam, significantly reducing carbon emissions and operating costs; for China Telecom’s full liquid-cooled data center in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, it provided efficient cooling solutions that significantly lowered PUE, helping it become a benchmark for ultra-large full-liquid cooling. In the elevator segment, Lingwang Elevator’s shipments in 2025 increased by over 40% year-over-year, delivering more than 10,000 freight elevators across various industrial scenarios, leading the domestic freight elevator market for three consecutive years. Toshiba Elevator’s renovation projects delivered over 4,000 units throughout the year, covering landmark projects like the Bund Guanglu Building in Shanghai and Inner Mongolia International Hotel. The new ELCOSMO small machine room passenger elevator, equipped with the industry’s first three-wheel suspension system, significantly improves riding comfort and maintains a leading position in renovation and high-end elevator markets.

Creating more value and sharing value in the AI era

Behind the performance growth and industry leadership are technological and business model innovations from Midea Building Technologies in the AI era, aimed at creating more practical value for users and sharing the increased value with them.

Under the dual carbon goals and urban renewal demands, the industry of building greening and intelligence faces pain points. Public building energy consumption accounts for nearly a quarter of total national building energy use, with HVAC systems consuming 50%-70% of the building’s energy. However, building energy-saving renovations face a “trust crisis” due to the lack of precise dynamic load monitoring and credible energy-saving benefit measurement tools, causing hesitation among owners when evaluating true investment returns.

The essence of urban renewal is the update of accounting models. Addressing this pain point, Midea Building Technologies released the MDV9 series of boundaryless multi-split systems last July, known as the “Smart Accounting Multi-split,” which has built-in State Grid-certified meters and pioneered the “hundred-kilometer fuel consumption” concept (per square meter energy consumption) in the HVAC industry. Through “accounting,” it provides tailored energy-saving strategies and energy consumption management for buildings, with clear investment payback calculations.

Furthermore, leveraging the “smart accounting” capability of devices, MDV9 innovates renovation models. For example, users can choose lightweight renovation modes, such as installing air conditioning first and adding photovoltaic systems later, using platform data to optimize PV configurations and lower initial decision thresholds. This transforms green and intelligent building upgrades from “cost” into “calculable investments,” activating renovation demand.

In operation and maintenance, MDV9 uses AI algorithms to predict potential risks like refrigerant leaks and compressor failures, shifting from passive repairs to proactive prevention, thereby reducing customer complaints and maintenance costs. With energy-saving visualization, lightweight investments, and risk predictability, MDV9 effectively addresses the three major issues in building energy-saving renovations: uncontrollable energy costs, high decision thresholds for upfront investments, and low operational management efficiency.

Based on the “personalized” concept, the MDV series can provide customized building energy-saving solutions for different building types, achieving precise cost savings and risk avoidance. Currently, Midea’s MDV series has been recognized by multiple chain restaurant brands like Yum! Brands and McDonald’s, as well as projects like Hefei NIO Center and Zhoushan Administrative Center’s comprehensive energy management. In one chain restaurant project, it monitored nearly 20,000 multi-split units’ refrigerant leaks in real-time, with a warning accuracy of 97%, reducing economic losses caused by equipment failures.

Beyond product and technological upgrades, Midea Building Technologies’ business model has also undergone a fundamental shift. In the Zhoushan Changhong Shipyard’s compressed air station project, Midea adopted an Energy Management Contract (EMC) model, providing high-efficiency equipment and intelligent centralized control systems with zero initial investment, sharing energy savings benefits for mutual gains. Midea also built an AI smart energy management platform for Jingzhou First People’s Hospital, which is expected to help the hospital reduce HVAC costs by over 45% and achieve more than 15% overall energy savings after renovation. This mode marks Midea’s transition from merely selling equipment to forming deep profit-sharing partnerships as a “green value partner.” Relying on the ecological synergy of HVAC, elevators, and the iBUILDING digital platform, Midea can offer full-lifecycle intelligent green infrastructure for individual buildings and zero-carbon parks, fully tapping into the trillion-yuan green building market.

Increasing investment in data center liquid cooling to explore new “blue oceans”

Midea Building Technologies has identified future growth drivers. Humanity is accelerating into the AI era. As a cornerstone of AI, AI data centers and AI computing power centers are expanding at unprecedented speeds. The rising demand for temperature control and cooling in AI data centers and AI computing centers is creating a highly promising new market. Currently, Chinese companies like Midea are breaking the monopoly of foreign firms in the liquid cooling market.

Recently, Midea Building Technologies invested over 1 billion yuan in Foshan to establish a liquid cooling manufacturing base. A relevant spokesperson stated that with the surge in AI large model training, the power density of single cabinets is increasing, with some high-end AI cabinets exceeding 100KW. Traditional air cooling is approaching physical limits, making liquid cooling an industry necessity.

Midea has proactively laid out to capture the domestic substitution opportunity. It has developed full-stack thermal control solutions for refrigerant, water, and liquid cooling systems. This investment aims to deeply integrate R&D and manufacturing, focusing on scaling production of core liquid cooling products like natural cold magnetic levitation chillers and CDU (cooling distribution units), filling a critical gap from “technological reserves” to “large-scale delivery.”

The base is expected to be operational by the end of 2027, becoming Midea’s core delivery hub for liquid cooling products domestically and internationally. It will significantly enhance Midea’s capacity for large-scale production in the liquid cooling field and realize a closed-loop of R&D, manufacturing, and delivery, capable of providing stable, efficient, customized solutions for high-density AI computing scenarios and boosting global competitiveness.

Compared to previous, this new facility will enable Midea’s data center liquid cooling solutions to evolve from “single equipment” to “system integration,” covering cooling sources, liquid cooling devices, terminal systems, intelligent control, and operational services; it will also strengthen cooperation with international standards and safety certification bodies like UL Solutions; additionally, core components such as CDU will see technological maturity.

Whether it’s liquid cooling solutions for AI computing scenarios, high-temperature heat pumps and magnetic levitation technologies combined with contract energy management in green industries, or elevator upgrades, HVAC renovations, and digital energy efficiency management in urban renewal, Midea continues to inject green, intelligent energy into various buildings amid the accelerating digital economy and deepening dual carbon goals, promoting decarbonization across countless industries.

In the future, AI will turn buildings into “living entities” capable of sensing and thinking. Currently, Midea Building Technologies has integrated AI algorithms with core technologies like HVAC, extending the scope of smart buildings from office towers to industrial, medical, and data center scenarios. Meanwhile, with global energy prices rising, the market potential for overseas building energy-saving renovations will also continue to grow. From these perspectives, Midea Building Technologies’ record-breaking performance last year marks a new starting point, and it will continue to advance boldly in blue ocean markets such as building automation, AI data center temperature control, and overseas green building upgrades.