AI boom powers Siemens to record annual profit

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Frankfurt, Germany: German engineering giant Siemens posted record annual profit on Thursday and said it saw growth ahead as the artificial intelligence boom sweeps up European…

Frankfurt, Germany: German engineering giant Siemens posted record annual profit on Thursday and said it saw growth ahead as the artificial intelligence boom sweeps up European companies in its supply chain.

US tech giants such as Microsoft and Meta have together invested hundreds of billions of dollars in AI data centres, boosting the fortunes of companies like Siemens that make much of the electrical and cooling equipment needed to operate the sites.

Swiss competitor ABB in October posted order growth of 40 percent for the three months to end-September, while France's Schneider Electric in the same month said sales growth over the period had beaten expectations.

Reporting results for its fiscal year to end-September, Siemens said its core industrial profit, which strips out some effects such as last year's sale of motor-maker Innomotics, rose 13 percent to 13.3 billion euros ($14.7 billion) for the year.

Siemens said it expected further growth in the current business year, guiding for sales growth of between nine and 11 percent across the company as well as broadly stable or higher profit margins at its two biggest divisions.

In the longer term, Siemens said it was now targeting sales growth of between seven and 11 percent a year, up from six to nine, as well as annual earnings per share growth of at least 10 percent, up from single-digit growth.

"Fiscal 2026 was an outstanding year for Siemens," CEO Roland Busch said in a statement. "We are providing an ambitious outlook for fiscal 2027 and are raising our group-level mid-term targets."

For the fourth quarter, orders -- an indicator of future sales -- at Siemens' smart infrastructure business rose 40 percent to 8.67 billion euros, helped by "numerous larger contract wins from data centre customers", Siemens said.

Orders at Siemens' digital industries division, which makes software for engineering and automation, rose 16 percent over the same period to 6.41 billion euros.

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