AI in action · Markets
Vertiv's Orders Doubled on AI Data Centres; Shares Rose 17%
Vertiv, which supplies power and cooling equipment to data centres, said organic orders more than doubled in the third quarter and raised its 2026 sales forecast by $650 million. The shares rose 16.6% to $243.12.
Not every company in the AI supply chain had a difficult Wednesday. Vertiv, which makes the power distribution, backup and liquid-cooling equipment that data centres need before a single chip is switched on, reported on October 28 that third-quarter net sales rose 61% to $4.31 billion, or 55% excluding acquisitions and currency, and that organic orders grew more than 100% from a year earlier, according to its results filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The shares rose 16.6% to $243.12, StockTitan's market wrap showed.
Profitability rose with volume. Adjusted operating margin widened by 2.9 percentage points to 25.2%, adjusted earnings rose 78% to $2.21 a share and diluted earnings 91% to $1.95, and adjusted free cash flow was $652 million, up 50%. The company has $6.2 billion of liquidity and a net cash position. "We are in the middle of the largest infrastructure buildout and it's accelerating," said chief executive Giordano Albertazzi.
The forecast did more for the stock than the quarter. Vertiv raised its 2026 net sales outlook by $650 million to a midpoint of $14.65 billion, with organic growth of 38%, and guided to adjusted earnings of $7.10 to $7.20 a share. For the fourth quarter alone it expects net sales of about $4.41 billion, organic growth of about 50%. The Motley Fool attributed the rally to the company's bullish view of long-term AI infrastructure demand.
The reaction was not shared by everyone selling into the same build-out. GE Vernova, whose third-quarter orders reached $29.3 billion and which agreed to buy Trench Group for $9 billion, fell 1.9%, and TE Connectivity also lost 1.9%, while Amphenol gained 3.5% and Flex 11.6%. Earlier this month a basket of AI build-out stocks had fallen about 23% since the S&P 500's October 6 record as investors questioned how long the spending could last.
Orders are the reason Vertiv matters to anyone watching the AI trade. Power and cooling are ordered months before a data centre opens, so a doubling of organic orders in the third quarter says the hyperscalers and their tenants were still committing to new sites over the summer, regardless of how their own shares were trading. The same evening, Alphabet said its capital spending would rise significantly in 2027, which is what Vertiv's order book had already implied.
Sources: US SEC — Vertiv Holdings Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1: third quarter 2026 results (Oct 28, 2026); StockTitan — Stock Market Today Live, October 28, 2026; The Motley Fool — Stock Market Today, Oct. 28: Markets edge higher as Fed holds rates steady