Who Owns Carrier?

Willis Haviland Carrier designed the first modern air conditioning system in July 1902 while working for Buffalo Forge Company in Buffalo, New York. His client, the Sackett-Wilhelms lithographing company in Brooklyn, needed to control humidity that ruined print runs. Carrier's system cooled and dehumidified air mechanically, and his 1906 "Apparatus for Treating Air" patent is widely regarded as the founding document of the air conditioning industry.

When Buffalo Forge exited the air conditioning business in 1915, Willis Carrier and six colleagues formed Carrier Engineering Corporation in Syracuse, New York. The company's 1922 centrifugal refrigeration machine made air conditioning practical for large spaces, moving it from industrial process control into movie theaters, department stores, and office buildings during the 1920s and 1930s.

Willis Carrier died in 1950. The company he founded expanded residential air conditioning through the postwar housing boom, helping enable population growth in the American South and Southwest. United Technologies acquired Carrier in 1979. Under UTC, Carrier became part of the Climate, Controls and Security segment and expanded internationally.

In 2020, UTC split into three companies: Carrier Global, Otis Worldwide, and the aerospace business that merged with Raytheon. Carrier Global began trading on the NYSE on April 3, 2020. The company then executed a portfolio transformation: it acquired Viessmann Climate Solutions in January 2024 for approximately 12 billion euros and took full control of Toshiba HVAC, while divesting its fire, security, and commercial refrigeration businesses.

Under CEO David Gitlin, the modern Carrier brand covers residential heating and cooling, light commercial rooftop units, commercial chillers and air handling systems, building controls, and aftermarket services. In 2025, Carrier doubled its data center cooling revenue to approximately $1 billion as artificial intelligence infrastructure demand accelerated.