Schneider Electric

Recent news

• Jun 15, 2026 · TechNode Global

  Foxconn, Schneider Electric partner to develop next-generation AI data center infrastructure

  Foxconn and Schneider Electric have announced a strategic collaboration to co-develop integrated solutions and next-generation reference architectures for AI data centers; production is expected to begin later this year.

  • Co-development: Foxconn and Schneider Electric will co-develop next-generation reference architectures for AI data centers and jointly explore closed-loop energy optimization, modular power and cooling skids, and standardized design frameworks to create repeatable, high-performance blueprints. Production start: expected later this year.
  • Roles and background:Foxconn contributes advanced compute platforms, AI rack integration, and global manufacturing; Schneider Electric contributes power systems, cooling, and energy management. Leadership statements from Young Liu and Olivier Blum were included in the companies’ separate statements.
• Jun 3, 2026

  California City Approves First Voter-Enacted Data Center Ban

  Monterey Park has approved a voter-enacted prohibition on data centers (Measure NDC).

  • Measure NDC passed with roughly 86% support, amends the city’s land-use framework to prohibit data centers citywide unless voters later repeal the restriction; the ballot text cites protecting air quality, drinking water resources, public health, and utility rates.
  • Background: The vote followed opposition to a proposed 247,000-square-foot data center backed by Australian firm HMC StratCap planned on a 15.8-acre site in Saturn Business Park that would have required about 50 MW peak power; the developer withdrew the project in March after the city imposed and extended moratoriums and moved the permanent ban to the June ballot.
• Jun 3, 2026

  California City Approves First Voter-Enacted Data Center Ban

  Monterey Park voters approved Measure NDC, enacting a citywide prohibition on data centers by roughly 86% support.

  • Main action: The measure prohibits data centers citywide unless repealed by a subsequent citywide vote; it passed with ~86% support and was placed on the June ballot after the City Council imposed and extended a moratorium. The ballot language cites protection of air quality, drinking water resources, public health, and utility rates. The specific proposed project that sparked the fight was a 247,000-square-foot facility on a 15.8-acre site in Saturn Business Park, backed by Australian firm HMC StratCap, which would have been located less than 500 feet from the nearest home and required about 50 MW of peak power; the developer withdrew the project in March as opposition mounted.

  • Context and background: The council first approved a 45-day moratorium before advancing a permanent ban and opting for a ballot measure (argued to be harder to reverse than an ordinance). Local concerns included power demand, diesel backup generators, noise, air quality, water use, electricity costs, and property values. The vote reflects a broader national trend of organized local opposition to data center and AI infrastructure expansion, noted by commentators and industry representatives such as Schneider Electric, University of Texas law professor David Spence, and J.Gold Associates.

• Jun 3, 2026

  New Data Center Developments: June 2026

  Data Center Knowledge has published a monthly roundup of global data center developments.

  • Highlights include: CloudBurst breaking ground on a 1.2 GW flagship campus in Central Texas; Nvidia partnering with IREN to deploy up to 5 GW of global AI infrastructure with Texas’ Sweetwater as a flagship site; Prime Data Centers breaking ground on SMF02 (150,000 sq.ft, 18 MW IT load) in Sacramento; Applied Digital planning Delta Forge 1 — $3.6 billion, 300-acre AI campus in Boyce, Louisiana; Hive Digital/Buzz HPC planning an ~320 MW AI facility in the Greater Toronto Area.
  • Additional concrete items and timelines: SoftBank plans up to €75 billion to develop 5 GW in France (targeting 3.1 GW by 2031); Ardian & Verne’s €5 billion digital campus (500 MW, with 200+ MW by 2030); TotalEnergies’ €100 million Pangea 5 supercomputer investment; Arcem’s Joroinen site delivering 60 MW by 2027 and 100 MW by 2029; CDC Data Centres’ 555 MW contract to be delivered with operations commencing in FY28 and FY29. All items are factual summaries from the article.
• Jun 2, 2026

  DOE’s Agora Simulates AI Data Center Power Challenges on the Grid

  The US Department of Energy has launched the Agora test platform to simulate the electrical behavior of hyperscale AI data centers and study their impacts on grid stability.

  • Main announcement: DOE launched Agora, a first-of-its-kind large-load grid integration test bed that replicates AI data center electrical behavior to provide insights for grid stability and resilience; the article situates this alongside ERCOT’s dedicated modeling work and Texas A&M’s 105-page dynamic modeling manual.
  • Background and details: Utilities and vendors (notably ERCOT, Texas A&M, and Schneider Electric) have spent roughly two years focused on supply-side capacity; the new work shifts emphasis to fault ride-through, reconnection behavior, fast ramping, and multi-gigawatt demand dynamics, and cites ERCOT/Texas A&M goals to study disturbance ride-through, post-fault recovery, and transient stability.
• May 27, 2026

  How a Coal Plant in Buffalo Became TeraWulf’s 500 MW AI Campus

  TeraWulf is developing the Lake Mariner “AI factory” campus on a retired coal plant site near Buffalo, delivering 500 MW today and planning to scale to 750 MW.

  • Main announcement: TeraWulf is building the Lake Mariner AI factory across roughly 180 acres of the former coal plant site, currently delivering 500 MW across four data halls with plans to scale to 750 MW; tenants include Core42 and Fluidstack (the latter hosts compute tied to Google AI workloads), and the fourth hall CB4 is expected to be energized by July 2026.
  • Background and technical details:Schneider Electric and Motivair have deployed more than $290 million in AI infrastructure and liquid-cooling systems at the site; the campus uses closed-loop glycol cooling with 144 RDHx units in one section and outdoor spray cooling used <5% of the year; legacy intake to Lake Ontario capacity is ~275 million gallons; electrical architecture includes 450 UPS systems (1–1.5 MW each) and reliance on Niagara hydropower (~90% zero-carbon).
• May 26, 2026

  TeraWulf’s Lake Mariner Campus: How a Retired Coal Plant Became an AI Factory Prototype

  TeraWulf has announced the rapid deployment and integration of power-and-cooling infrastructure at its Lake Mariner campus in Barker, New York.

  • Main announcement: TeraWulf, in partnership with Schneider Electric and Motivair, compressed deployment of over $290 million in mission-critical power and cooling infrastructure into a twelve-month window to repurpose the retired Lake Mariner coal plant into an AI/HPC campus designed to support up to 750 MW of future load; deployments include Galaxy VX UPS systems, lithium-ion battery systems, Motivair CDUs (105 kW to 2.5 MW MCDU-70), ChilledDoor rear-door heat exchangers, NetShelter racks, and EcoStruxure IT monitoring.
  • Background and specifics: The project leverages existing industrial transmission assets (dual 345-kV lines, nearby Niagara hydroelectric and imported Quebec hydropower), long-term tenant commitments from Core42 and Fluidstack (backed by Google), and a brownfield, energy-first strategy focused on sites with pre-existing transmission/substation infrastructure to avoid multiyear interconnection timelines.
• May 19, 2026

  Q1 earnings: No slowdown for building system companies, real estate firms

  Real estate management companies reported strong Q1 2026 results driven by a recovery in leasing activity and rising demand for data center services.

  • Q1 2026 earnings summary: CBRE reported building operations revenue up 19% year over year and data center and other critical infrastructure services up 71%; JLL reported a 17% increase in North America industrial leasing revenue with meaningful contributions from data centers (CFO Kelly Howe); Cushman & Wakefield saw a 17% jump in leasing across segments, particularly in Americas office and industrial. These figures are reported in companies’ first-quarter 2026 earnings disclosures and covered by Facilities Dive.
  • Background and sector detail: Building controls, energy-management and thermal-management firms are benefiting: Johnson Controls saw data center cooling drive sales up 8%, Schneider Electric increased its energy management segment nearly 13%, and companies named include Honeywell and Trane. CBRE CEO Bob Sulentic made remarks on the company’s April 23 earnings call about moving into critical infrastructure and data center services. This article summarizes Q1 earnings reporting rather than announcing a new standalone initiative.
• May 14, 2026

  AI Transforms Data Centers into Power and Cooling Plants

  Omdia and Schneider Electric report that AI infrastructure is reshaping data center design.

  • Main finding: Industry analysis and practitioner commentary show rack power densities rising sharply (Meta: ~18 kW in 2022 → ~34 kW in 2025; quoted ~130 kW maximum with Nvidia Blackwell NVL72 deployments) and expectations that the sector could be “ready for a 600 kW rack”. The shift is causing operators to allocate far more campus area to cooling plants, electrical systems, and mechanical equipment than to server white space.
  • Details and context: Hyperscalers are building new AI-focused facilities rather than retrofitting legacy sites, adopting liquid cooling (direct-to-chip) alongside air cooling, and moving toward standardized AI pods / prefabricated modules. Vendors and standards cited include Nvidia reference architectures, Open Compute Project, and collaborations such as OptiCool + Belden on rear-door liquid cooling. Colocation and hosted AI infrastructure are noted as options for enterprises.
• May 12, 2026

  Organized Opposition Collides with AI Data Center Growth

  Data Center Opposition has launched a platform to track and connect local anti-data-center groups and provide an open, monthly-updated dataset.

  • Launch details and scope: The site Data Center Opposition (launched by a coalition of community groups and advocacy organizations) publishes an open dataset that tracks 268 local opposition groups across 37 states with roughly 360,000 followers, and the dataset is updated monthly to help communities connect and organize.
  • Background, purpose and limits: The dataset is designed as coordination infrastructure (not a definitive outcomes tracker), compiles entries primarily via Facebook, websites, fundraising pages, media and outreach, and has known limitations including under-counting offline mobilization and not tracking whether opposition changed project outcomes; the article also cites concrete project impacts — e.g., the Prince William County Digital Gateway (a proposed 37-building campus) had approvals voided in 2025, county officials withdrew from litigation, and one developer exited the project.
• May 12, 2026 · Outsourcing Today

  Romania can become the “new Norway” in the data center industry. The strategic window for attracting major AI investments is 12 months

  Tema Energy and DataCenter Forum Romania participants announced that Romania has a ~12-month window to attract AI and hyperscale data center investments and can provide up to 500 MW almost immediately.

  • Main announcement/action:Tema Energy and forum speakers declared a strategic opportunity: Romania can leverage uncongested grid zones to offer up to 500 MW almost immediately and has roughly 12 months to attract major AI/hyperscale investments; an initial anchor project of >100 MW (example: ClusterPower in Craiova) was cited as a potential catalyst, with realistic project implementation timelines of 18–20 months.
  • Background and details: The forum (DataCenter Forum Romania 2026) featured speakers from NVIDIA and Accelerated Infrastructure Capital (AIC); data centers currently represent 0.2% of Romania’s electricity use (vs 6% Netherlands, 24% Ireland). The article referenced Norway’s Stargate Narvik (~230 MW renewable target, ~100,000 NVIDIA GPUs) as a comparative model and emphasized needs such as liquid cooling, renewables + storage, and rapid grid connections.
• May 8, 2026

  Data center thermal challenges drive 8% Johnson Controls Q2 sales growth

  Johnson Controls has announced that it is pushing more of its thermal management and controls business into data centers, introducing two new chiller platforms and adding coolant distribution units (CDUs) to its portfolio.

  • Main announcement: Johnson Controls introduced two new chiller platforms — York YDAM (delivers up to 3.5 megawatts of cooling, 20% higher capacity density, supports warm water cooling for advanced GPUs) and York YK-HT (claims the industry’s widest operating range and can eliminate up to 9 million gallons of cooling tower water annually in typical deployments). The company also added CDUs to its data center product set and is beginning to take orders for the new platforms.
  • Background and details: For Q2 the company reported $6.1 billion in sales (up 8% YoY) and a $20 billion order backlog (up 30% YoY). Johnson Controls is supplying reference designs (including work with NVIDIA) for gigawatt-scale AI data centers, expanded manufacturing capacity (saying it more than tripled physical capacity), and launched the Smart Ready Chiller to provide richer cloud performance data to support long-term service contracts.
• May 4, 2026

  AI Data Center Boom Rewires US Power Supply Chain

  Wood Mackenzie reports the US data center electrical equipment market will grow to $65 billion by 2030, up from roughly $20 billion in 2026.

  • Main announcement:Wood Mackenzie projects $65 billion by 2030 (from ~$20 billion in 2026) as data center demand for transformers, switchgear, and power distribution surges; forecasted transformer demand rises from ~1,500 units annually to >9,000 by decade-end, and US data center capacity is expected to scale from ~24 GW to 100 GW between 2026 and 2030. Lead-time metrics cited include substation transformer lead times stretching from ~140 weeks (2023) to >160 weeks (2026) and switchgear timelines near one year.
  • Context and implementation details: The report links the growth to hyperscaler AI demand (Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Meta) and resulting record capex; grid and interconnection constraints are central (PJM projects averaged ~8 years in queue for 2025 commercial operation cohorts, PJM and ERCOT filing data cited). Developer responses include phased builds, advance procurement/supply agreements, and prefabricated electrical systems; Schneider Electric has committed >$700 million in US investment through 2027 to expand domestic manufacturing and standardize designs.
• May 4, 2026

  ‘Energy security’ drives Schneider Electric growth: CEO

  Schneider Electric reported record Q1 2026 revenue of $11.4B, driven by strong demand from data centers and growth in its energy management segment.

  • Q1 2026 results: Schneider reported $11.4B quarterly revenue, +11.2% organic year-over-year growth; its Energy Management segment revenue rose 12.8% YoY, with North America Energy Management up 15.9% YoY and data-center demand described as “double digits”.
  • Business drivers & details: The company cited the AI boom, geopolitical tensions, and customer demand for liquid cooling and AI-ready architectures; it highlighted partnerships and solutions including digital twinning with NVIDIA and ETAP, liquid/air cooling via its Motivair subsidiary, operational support from AVEVA, and building management via EcoStruxure. Revenues in Middle East and Africa were down and Schneider reaffirmed its 2026 financial targets while noting geopolitical/macro risk.