The unlikely corporate winners of AI

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Eaton, an Ohio-based power management company, received 240 per cent more data centre orders in Q1 this year, according to its chief executive Paulo Ruiz, who added that it expected AI power demand to nearly triple in the next five years. French electrical equipment maker Legrand has doubled its revenues this decade with half of the growth coming from data centres, which now make up more than a quarter of its turnover.

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Air conditioning and liquid cooling — using water to stop chips from overheating — are in demand too. Shares in AC maker Comfort Systems USA have shot up 260 per cent over the past year, while Schneider Electric bought a stake in data centre liquid cooling specialist Motivair for US$850 million last year.

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Utilities are rushing to supply AI companies with power — including Spain’s Iberdrola, a leading supplier of power contracts to tech firms in Europe, according to PexaPark data, and Entergy in the U.S., whose share price hit a record high after a US$10 billion deal with Meta.

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Meanwhile, gas turbines, once near-obsolete, now have an up to seven-year backlog in the U.S., according to S&P Global, as data centre demand grows for backup or off-grid power supplies.

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Siemens Energy, which before its spin-off from Siemens AG cut thousands of jobs as gas turbine demand plummeted in the 2010s, said that Q1 2026 was its strongest ever for orders.

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Several generator and engine companies have also pivoted to supplying data centres, including Caterpillar, Boeing supplier Howmet Aerospace, Finnish ship engine maker Wärtsilä and Baker Hughes, which formerly focused on oilfield services.

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“My maxim these days is anything that can spin an engine is going to end up in a data centre,” said Cordovil.

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Part of the appeal of the new market is the speed the projects move at compared to traditional industrial clients. In the U.S., many data centre customers were prepared to pay over the odds in reservation fees for potential future orders, one company told the FT.

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However, questions are being raised over whether the wave of investment can last — particularly if demand from the relatively small number of companies driving the build-out slows. Bain & Company has estimated that the tech industry must generate US$2 trillion in AI revenue per year to justify current data centre spending trends.

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Many industrial companies were hit by the market rout set off by the release of Chinese LLM DeepSeek at the start of 2025, which raised fears AI would no longer require such huge investment.

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The OECD warned last week of a “market repricing” of AI companies should the U.S.-Iran war drag on, keeping energy prices high and threatening data centre construction in the Middle East.

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Most companies remain bullish and believe the AI investment cycle is here for the long term.

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Schneider Electric told the FT AI data centres were a “core growth driver” for the company, while Siemens’ head of data centres Ciaran Flanagan said AI demand was a “long-term, structural growth trend rather than a short-term cycle”, adding that its data centre business grew 40 per cent in 2025.

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Cordovil said that while the pace of change had been a “very big culture shock” for many industrial companies, “the prize is the amount of capex that is coming towards AI”.

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Market capitalisation and share price figures as of 6pm United Kingdom time, June 8, 2026

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© 2026 The Financial Times Ltd

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