Schneider Electric tops revenue forecast as it rides AI data centre wave

That was a notch above the average consensus estimate of 9.76 billion euros, with 10.1% organic growth expected by analysts ‌polled by the company. The $182 billion company, the fifth-largest by market ​value in France, is reaping gains from its acquisition of U.S. liquid cooling ⁠specialist Motivair last year, which expanded its product portfolio for data centres.

Schneider Electric narrowly beat first-quarter revenue expectations ​on Thursday, once again boosted by ​the global artificial intelligence data centre ‌buildout ​reinforcing the French group's role as one of the most sought-after suppliers. Revenue in the three months through ‌March grew 11.2% organically to 9.77 billion euros ($11.39 billion). That was a notch above the average consensus estimate of 9.76 billion euros, with 10.1% organic growth expected by analysts ‌polled by the company. Large cloud providers, also known as hyperscalers, are expected to invest ‌more than $600 billion into data centres and other AI-related infrastructure this year alone, analysts say.

Schneider makes power equipment, server racks and most importantly cooling systems that let energy-hungry data centres operate at ⁠peak ​performance. The booming ⁠demand for this technology, particularly from the United States, is driving Schneider's earnings, offering a stable and ⁠alternative revenue stream to the legacy electric equipment business. The $182 billion company, the fifth-largest by market ​value in France, is reaping gains from its acquisition of U.S. liquid cooling ⁠specialist Motivair last year, which expanded its product portfolio for data centres. Consultancy firm Market Decipher has ⁠estimated ​that the global AI data centre liquid cooling market will grow to $18.1 billion by 2036, from only $3.7 billion in 2026. Schneider confirmed its full-year targets and ⁠said it expected the negative impact of foreign exchange fluctuations on revenue to be between ⁠750 million euros ⁠and 850 million euros in 2026. In February, it had estimated the hit to be between 850 million euros and 950 ‌million ‌euros.

($1 = 0.8578 euros)