Update 1 - Schneider Electric raises its 2026 target again, driven by surging demand from data centers

Added income details and stock price trend charts. Updated the CFO's comments on the third quarter in the seventh paragraph, background and details of the acquisition of PTC in the 10th-11th paragraphs, and stock price information in the 12th paragraph.

Mathias de Rozario/Matthieu Huchet

Reuters, October 16 - Schneider Electric (SCHN.PA) on Friday raised its 2026 core profit and revenue targets for the second time this year, as the French industrial group cements its position as a key supplier for large cloud providers building artificial intelligence data centers.

Schneider expects its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) to achieve organic growth of 18% to 21% in 2026, up from the previous forecast of 14% to 19%.

The company forecasts an organic revenue growth rate of between 12% and 14%, compared with the previous range of 10% to 13%.

“Data centers remain a key growth engine, and not only are we continuing to execute current orders, this quarter we also saw triple-digit growth in demand,” CEO Olivier Blum said in the quarterly statement.

Schneider, once known primarily for circuit breakers and industrial electrical equipment, has now become one of the biggest industrial beneficiaries of the AI boom, not only building the backbone infrastructure for data centers but also providing a full suite of solutions from cooling systems and server racks to critical power distribution equipment.

Third-quarter revenue achieved organic growth of 16.9%, reaching 11.46 billion euros ($12.87 billion), surpassing the average analyst forecast of 11.13 billion euros provided by the company.

“We delivered the strongest quarterly performance in Schneider’s history,” CFO Nathalie Fast said in a media call.

Schneider said that although the growth in the third quarter was mainly driven by China and East Asia, data center orders also benefited from continued strong demand from U.S. hyperscale enterprises.

The company added that the data center business is the main growth driver in the region, both from direct sales to major clients in the social media, technology, and digital infrastructure sectors, as well as from domestic and regional colocation customers.

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Schneider has also been expanding its software portfolio through the recent acquisition of industrial AI specialist (link) (Cognite), and the $22.6 billion acquisition of engineering software maker (link) (PTC, PTC.O), aiming to create a platform covering product design, industrial operations, and energy management.

Fast said the PTC brand is likely to adopt a governance structure similar to Schneider’s industrial software subsidiary Aveva, which was fully acquired by Schneider in 2023.

Schneider’s shares were little changed in early trading. Since the start of 2026, its stock has risen by about 10% in total, though the negative market reaction to the PTC deal in early October has curbed its gains.

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(1 USD = 0.8902 EUR)

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