Vertiv earnings just sent an upbeat signal about AI ahead of Big Tech results

By Tomi Kilgore

The AI infrastructure company's beat sales expectations by the widest margin in more than five years, and raised its capex outlook

Vertiv's big sales beat affirms that the AI build-out is accelerating.

Shares of Vertiv Holdings surged Wednesday after the artificial-intelligence infrastructure company's earnings verified that the artificial intelligence build-out isn't slowing as many may fear - it's actually accelerating.

Once one of the hottest AI plays, the stock (VRT) had rocketed more than sixfold from its 2025 low to its 2026 high, enough for it gain entrance in the S&P 500 SPX. It had fallen on some hard times over the past several months, however, as AI builders started finding it harder to get financing, and as the building of data centers faced political headwinds.

But on Wednesday, Vertiv, which makes cooling and power-management systems for data centers, soothed some of those fears. Just in time, as earnings from the by AI hyperscalers - Alphabet (GOOGL), Microsoft (MSFT) and Amazon (AMZN) - loom.

Vertiv's stock powered higher by 13.4% in morning trading, to lead the S&P 500's gainers.

"We are in the middle of the largest infrastructure buildout and it's accelerating," CEO Giordano Albertazzi said in a statement. "The demands on data center infrastructure are evolving faster than ever, and Vertiv's role in that buildout keeps expanding."

Sales for the third quarter to September jumped 61.2% from a year ago to $4.31 billion, after growing by an average of 26.5% over the previous four quarters. The results were 15% above the average analyst estimate compiled by FactSet of $3.75 billion, to mark the biggest beat in more than five years, based on available FactSet data back to October 2021.

Sales in the Americas region, which BofA Securities analyst Andrew Obin said was an area of concern for investors heading into results, shot up 74.5% to $2.99 billion, to beat the FactSet consensus of $2.51 billion by 19%.

The company said it expects sales of $4.41 billion for the current quarter, which implies growth of 50%.

For the full year, Vertiv raised the midpoint of its guidance range for sales by about 5% to $14.65 billion. The company said it still expects capital expenditures for the year to be about 4% of revenue, which means its capex plans rose to about $586 million from $560 million.

"The companies that will define the digital age are the ones investing ahead of the curve and delivering for customers, and that is what we are doing," Executive Chairman Dave Cote said.

Vertiv reported net income that increased 91.8% to million, which adjusted earnings per share grew 78% to $2.21 to beat the FactSet EPS consensus of $1.82.

Even with its roller-coaster ride this year, Vertiv's stock was still up 46% in 2026, while the S&P 500 has advanced 12.9%.

-Tomi Kilgore

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10-28-26 1101ET