Along with other industrial firms such as France’s Schneider Electric and Switzerland’s ABB, Siemens — which makes electrical gear — has benefited from a boom in data centres in the US that provide the computing power for AI.

Orders at Siemens’ infrastructure division, which makes much of the electrical equipment needed for data centres, reached a record 7.53 billion euros (US$8.83 billion) in the second quarter, up 35% on a currency-adjusted basis.

“Several larger contract wins with data centre and semiconductor customers, predominantly in the US,” drove growth at the division, Siemens said.

Overall orders rose 18% across the company to 24.1 billion euros, which include a train-making, software and medical equipment business.

The figures make Siemens the latest European industrial company to profit from the AI boom.

ABB and Schneider Electric have posted sales growth above expectations in recent weeks and Siemens Energy — spun off from Siemens in 2020 — in late April reported record intake, boosted by data centre demand for power-producing gas turbines.

Overall net profit at Siemens fell 8% to 2.23 billion euros, weighed partly by a comparison effect after the infrastructure division sold a business this time last year as well as tariffs hitting the medical and transport divisions.

“We delivered a successful second quarter despite the geopolitical environment, which remains very demanding,” Siemens CEO Roland Busch said. “We’re on a path of profitable growth.”

For the year, Siemens expects revenue growth of between 6% and 8% on last year’s figure of 78.9 billion euros, but it adjusted expectations up slightly at its software division as well as the AI-adjacent infrastructure business.