AI orders flow in at Germany's Siemens but profit slips

FRANKFURT — Siemens reported Wednesday strong growth in orders from spending related to the artificial intelligence boom, even as Germany's biggest company reported a slight fall in second-quarter profit. Along with France's Schneider Electric and Switzerland's ABB, engineering giant Siemens has benefitted from massive spending on data centres in the United States that provide the computing power for AI. Orders at its infrastructure division, which makes much of the electrical gear needed for data centres, reached a record 7.5 billion euros ($8.8 billion) in the second quarter, up 35 percent on a currency-adjusted basis. Chief executive Roland Busch told reporters during a conference call that there had been "unprecedented triple-digit percentage order growth" from data centre customers. "Data centre demand has been soaring," he said. "We're confident that we'll be able to keep up the stunning pace throughout fiscal 2026." Overall, orders for its trains, software, medical equipment and other businesses rose 18 percent to 24.1 billion euros. Rivals ABB and Schneider Electric have posted sales growth above expectations in recent weeks, while Siemens Energy -- spun off from Siemens in 2020 -- reported last month record intake boosted by data centre demand for power-producing gas turbines. Asked on the call if AI was shaping up to deliver a two-to-three-year boom for Siemens or a permanent new business line, Busch said the answer depended on how quickly and effectively AI models were deployed with customers in the real world. "The question is rather how quickly we can transfer from training models to inferencing, so that customers can actually use the models and monetise them," he said. "This will continue for quite a number of years but of course we don't have a crystal ball to see into the future beyond that," he added. Net profit at Siemens fell eight percent to 2.23 billion euros, weighed down by the sale of a business in its infrastructure division last year, as well as tariffs hitting the medical and transport divisions. For the full year, Siemens expects revenue growth of six to eight percent from last year's figure of 78.9 billion euros, adjusting expectations up slightly at its software division as well as the AI-adjacent infrastructure business.

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