Carrier commits over $600m to a Fort Worth chiller plant on record backlog

Carrier Global announced on 22 October that it will invest more than $600m over the next three years in a new advanced manufacturing and engineering centre in Fort Worth, Texas. The site, at the AllianceTexas development, will cover more than 1 million square feet and is expected to start operating in 2027.

What it will make

The plant will expand Carrier's US output of commercial chillers, both air-cooled and water-cooled, which the company groups under its advanced thermal management systems. Carrier says it is acting on record backlog levels and a growing pipeline, with demand coming from data centres, healthcare, education and industrial customers.

Carrier expects the centre to create 1,500 jobs across manufacturing, engineering and other functions. It will include engineering labs, and the company plans workforce development partnerships with local schools and colleges.

"This investment reflects the strong demand we are securing for high-performance, energy-efficient solutions" David Gitlin, Chairman and CEO, Carrier

Incentives and local context

According to American Machinist, Carrier is in line for local property-tax abatements over seven years estimated at up to $10.9m, plus a state enterprise grant of up to $2.5m. Both are performance-based and tied to job creation and the use of small-business construction contractors. The same report says there is no sign that other Carrier plants will lose out from the new capacity.

Fort Worth officials had been working on the project for some weeks. Community Impact reported in September that the city council had approved an abatement for a Carrier facility at Alliance, at a time when the company was still weighing three other states. The final announcement is larger than the figures in those earlier city documents.

Why it matters to contractors

Chillers sit at the heart of the central plants that mechanical contractors install in data halls, hospitals and campuses. When an equipment maker spends this much on new capacity, it is telling the market it expects that installation work to keep flowing well beyond 2027. It also fits with what the largest contractors are reporting: Comfort Systems USA, which published its results the same day, said technology work made up 59% of its revenue in the first nine months of 2026.

Supply has been a recurring headache on large mechanical jobs, with long equipment lead times shaping schedules. More domestic chiller capacity should, over time, give project teams more certainty on delivery dates, though the plant will not be running until 2027.