Vertiv Holdings LLC (VRT) surged more than 5% in Thursday's pre-market session, as the company's AI-ready infrastructure solutions position it to benefit from the escalating AI arms race between the United States and China.

The recent release of advanced Chinese AI models like Qwen 2.5 has sent US tech giants like Microsoft, Meta, and NVIDIA scrambling to stay ahead in the rapidly evolving AI landscape. This has reignited competition and capital expenditure spending on AI infrastructure, including data centers, servers, and cooling systems.

As a leading provider of power management, thermal systems, and IT infrastructure solutions for AI workloads, Vertiv is poised to capitalize on this heightened demand. The company collaborates with major AI chip makers like NVIDIA and Intel to develop AI cooling solutions, ensuring that AI systems remain operational even during outages or high computational loads.

Analysts at JPMorgan recently noted that the recent pullback in Vertiv's share price due to the DeepSeek disruption appears overdone, citing the company's lucrative risk/reward profile. They believe Vertiv will benefit from a longer-term infrastructure cycle driven by the growth of high-end AI servers and the shift towards inference spending.