Four of the oldest industrial groups in Europe have added greater than EUR 150 billion to their market captures on the increasing demand for data centers, that are driven by the boom of artificial intelligence.
European manufacturers from switches to intelligent measuring devices offer the servers and infrastructure that operate data centers for giant language models and cloud computing. Traditional manufacturers of electrical devices, resembling
“We don't put 70 or 80 billion USD on the table like Microsoft and Meta 70 or 80 billion,” said Franck Lemery, Chief Financial Officer from Legrand. “(But) we (deliver) the components and our business grows as compared (expenses).”
“The sexy a part of AI is directed by American firms,” said Alex Cordovil, Analyst at Dell'oro. “But with some exceptions, the nuts and bolts of the infrastructure are dominated by European players.”
Investors have discovered the potential. Since the introduction of Chatgpt in November 2022, the market reviews of Schneider Electric, Siemens AG, ABB and Legrand 4 of the leading European groups within the industry have increased by EUR 151 billion, which has increased by greater than 60 percent within the case of German listed Siemens AG.
The groups proceed to supply residential buildings and industrial groups of electrics. However, data centers are their fastest growing source of income, which is because of the computing power required by AI models in addition to games, cloud computing and streaming.
This focus was also exposed to large share fluctuations, even during a market trading at first of this yr, which was triggered by the introduction of the Chinese major language model Deepseek, of which the makers say that they were developed with less processing performance. According to Cordovil, investors are also concerned concerning the restrictions for network systems and power supplies.
However, groups, including Legrand, have dismantled concerns and point to the long -term trend of upper demand for data processing. Dell'oro expects the whole capital expenditure for data centers of virtually $ 600 billion to extend to greater than $ 1 to 2028 in 2025.
“All turbulence is relative. We are very, very confident concerning the promise of our portfolio,” added Lemery. “We need to live with these ups and downs.”
Schneider Electric
Since the acquisition of American Power Conversion in 2006, Schneider Electric has been a number one provider in the information center sector, which puts a position in pole position in pole position in an effort to profit from the increasing demand for electricity.
According to the corporate, around 24 percent of its orders made a rise of 23 percent in 2023 and 19 percent in 2022 in 2024 in 2024.
The APC deal was initially expensive by investors, but enabled the group to maneuver into the marketplace for critical service services, which incorporates generators which might be mandatory to make sure uninterrupted power supply to data centers.
Schneider has a price of € 127.9 billion and last yr overtakes the most important major major major in an indication of the worldwide shift of fossil fuels to electricity.
The company ranges from software to monitoring the infrastructure of the information center infrastructure, shelves to storing servers and cooling systems to stop high -performance processing systems from being overheated. Last yr it acquired 75 percent controlling interest in motifair, specialist in liquid cooling, for $ 850 million.
This would show you how to serve customers resembling Nvidia whose servers would slightly require the more efficient water cooling process than the Air for its strongest AI chips, said the managing director of Schneider, Olivier Blum, at the corporate's general meeting.
The AI had develop into a “fundamental change in paradigm for IT and electrical infrastructure”, he added.
Legrand
Like Schneider and Siemens, the French manufacturer of sockets and cables, the Grand involves the nineteenth century. In the 1900s it began to make light switches product of porcelain and wood products, then probably the most famous isolators of electrical currents.
Legrand has still resident in its historical headquarters in Limoges lately and has killed 20 percent of sales in 2024 previously few years, which made the award twice as high in 2019.
“It could possibly be more until 2030 between 20 and 25 percent no proper goal. We are very confident that it’s a vertical. They will proceed to grow in the following few years,” said Lemery.
The group made 10 small acquisitions last yr, six of which were in the realm of data centers.
But Like its industrial competitors, Legrand operates an export model with a high variety of US customers who allow Trump's tariffs. This month, the managing director Benoît Coquart said that 50-60 percent US tariffs for Chinese goods could cost the corporate as much as $ 200 million this yr.
Fig
The Swedish-Swedish-Swiss electrical company ABB does all the pieces from robotics to power generators, but lately the sales have been replaced by data centers.
Morten Wierod, the corporate's managing director, said that ABB “works with most of the world's largest data center operators to make sure that they’ve secure, reliable and energy -efficient technologies to administer their increasing energy needs”.
In 2024, data center orders made 15 percent of $ 16.4 billion in orders within the EBB electrification unit, in comparison with around 9 percent two years. The electrification corresponds to almost half of the annual turnover of Fig 33 billion. Between 2019 and 2023, the commands of the information center grew up with average annual rate of 24 percent and accelerated last yr when the AI race tightened.
The ABB offers for data center operators include the guarantee of availability and the rise in energy efficiency in addition to the belief of batteries for entire facilities. Its systems that provide reliable electricity are more environmentally friendly than conventional generators, in line with the corporate.
However, the corporate's commitment to hyperscalers has led to fluctuations within the stock markets, even after reporting that Microsoft had canceled some leasing contracts. The United States is its largest marketplace for electrification with around 50 percent.
Siemens AG
The German conglomerate Siemens has a lower give attention to data centers, but has increased the expenses for the infrastructure for technology to meet up with competitors like Schneider Electric.
“Siemens and ABB have focused on other areas and have now brought their skills previously three years,” said William Mackie, analyst at Kepler Cheuveux.
The company's entire data center business, which has heated up the recent growth of the German manufacturer, rose by greater than 45 percent to around EUR 1.3 billion in the primary half of the financial yr.
However, the corporate based in Munich has recorded some hurdles about this growth and blamed a break in data center orders of a “hyperscaler customer” for reducing the orders of electrical products resembling microgrid controllers by 16 percent.
