SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics said on Wednesday it had agreed to buy Germany's FlaktGroup for 1.5 billion euros ($1.68 billion) as it looks to meet growing demand for cooling of data centres used for artificial intelligence projects.

In the South Korean company's biggest acquisition in eight years, it will purchase the air conditioning and heating systems maker from private equity group Triton.

The data centre segment has a high barrier to entry requiring global supply experience and the ability to present optimal designs and solutions, Samsung said in a statement. It expects the FlaktGroup deal to close within this year, it said.

Samsung, led by Chairman Jay Y. Lee, said at a shareholder meeting in March that it was looking for "meaningful" deals this year to drive growth after lagging behind rivals in tapping the AI chip boom led by Nvidia. Samsung added it aimed to pursue acquisitions in the chip industry.

Investors expecting bigger deals involving Samsung's cash-cow chip business might feel underwhelmed by the FlaktGroup announcement, analysts said.

"This acquisition is more about reinforcing its consumer electronics and home appliance businesses, so it is not the game-changing deal the market had been hoping for," said Greg Roh, head of research at Hyundai Motor Securities.

Samsung's appliance business also makes commercial cooling and heating systems.

"It feels like the company is playing it safe rather than making bold bets," Roh said.

Shares in the consumer electronics and semiconductor maker inched up 0.7% largely in line with the benchmark KOSPI.

Samsung has shunned major acquisitions since its $8 billion purchase of car electronics maker Harman International Industries in 2017. This month, Harman agreed to buy the audio business of U.S. firm Masimo for $350 million.

Consumer audio is a new growth engine, Samsung has said, alongside cooling and heating systems, medical and robotics.

In December, Samsung became the largest shareholder of South Korea's Rainbow Robotics with the purchase of an additional 267 billion won ($189.03 million) stake.

Samsung last year formed a joint venture with Lennox in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) sector, and was among the bidders for Johnson Controls International HVAC assets that were bought by rival Robert Bosch for $8 billion last year.

($1 = 0.8937 euros)

($1 = 1,412.5000 won)

(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin, Heekyong Yang and Jack Kim; Editing by Ed Davies, Christopher Cushing and Jamie Freed)