Who Makes Data Center Power Equipment? Transformers, Turbines, Gensets and Switchgear

EXPLAINED · Players · Last reviewed: 1 Nov 2026 · Next review: after Cummins’s third-quarter results (5 Nov 2026) and Siemens Energy’s full-year results in November 2026

Data center power equipment is the electrical gear that carries power from the grid or an on-site plant to the servers: transformers, switchgear, generators, turbines, uninterruptible power supplies and power distribution units.

Why an investor cares: an AI hall earns nothing until power reaches the racks, and the gear that carries it is now booked years ahead. The companies that make it are paid first, often before the hall is finished. Our guide to how much power an AI data centre uses covers the load; this page covers who builds the path it travels.

Who makes data center power equipment?

A short list of industrial firms, sorted by where the gear sits. Power reaches a data centre at high voltage, is stepped down and switched several times, is backed up by generators and batteries, and is finally split out to each rack. Each step has its own makers.

Roles, not a ranking. Several companies work at more than one step. Cooling is a separate supply chain and is not covered here.

The names repeat. GE Vernova and Siemens Energy sell both grid gear and turbines. Caterpillar sells turbines, gas engines and backup generators. Schneider Electric, Eaton and Vertiv cover most of the gear inside the building. That overlap is why one company’s results can say a lot about several steps at once.

Who makes transformers and grid gear for data centers?

Mostly Hitachi Energy, Siemens Energy and GE Vernova in Europe and the US, and HD Hyundai Electric, Hyosung Heavy Industries and LS Electric in Korea. This is the gear at the fence line: the large power transformers and high-voltage switchgear in the substation that ties the campus to the grid.

It is also where the shortage is sharpest. Wood Mackenzie estimated in August 2026 that power transformers were about 15% short of demand this year and substations about 8% short, with the 100 MVA-plus class the tightest. It said data centres had been turning to Chinese makers to cut the wait, which a US executive order banning bulk-power imports from certain countries, China above all, now shuts off. Wood Mackenzie put the imports at stake at more than $22 billion since 2025.

The makers say the same thing in their own words. HD Hyundai Electric said in October that its third-quarter orders fell 19.1% because “our slots are full”, not because demand slowed. Its order backlog stood at $8.84 billion. Hitachi Energy’s chief executive told CNBC-TV18 on 13 October: “We actually aren't coping.”

GE Vernova’s grid business tells the same story in dollars. Its Electrification equipment backlog was $42.2 billion at the end of September, up 60% in a year, and in October it agreed to buy Trench Group, a high-voltage equipment maker, for about $9 billion. Our Analysis on big transformers staying sold out to 2029 works through where that cash sticks; our Markets note on Korean power gear and US data centres covers the Korean makers.

Who makes gas turbines and on-site power for data centers?

GE Vernova, Siemens Energy and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries make the large frame gas turbines; Caterpillar makes smaller turbines through Solar Turbines, along with large gas engines. Developers buy them when a hall needs power sooner than the grid can deliver it, or as a campus’s main supply.

GE Vernova had 64 GW of gas equipment in backlog and another 58 GW held under slot reservations at 30 September 2026, 122 GW in all. It signed 11 GW of new contracts in the third quarter and shipped 5 GW. Our arithmetic: at that shipping pace the book is about 24 quarters, or six years, of work. The company is adding output, so the real wait is shorter, but the direction is clear.

Caterpillar said on 29 October that it was taking large engine orders as far out as 2029 and turbine orders into 2030. Its power generation sales to users rose 75% in the quarter, driven by data centres, and it plans to nearly triple large engine output from its 2024 level by 2030.

Some buyers are moving further up the chain. Our Stack page on what SpaceX does in AI covers its plan to cast its own turbine blades and vanes, the parts suppliers say run 12 to 18 months behind the rest of the machine. Our Analysis on gas turbines booked into 2030 covers the cash side.

Who makes backup generators for data centers?

Cummins, Caterpillar and Rolls-Royce, through its mtu brand, make most of the large diesel generator sets, and packagers such as Generac build systems around their engines. Every large hall carries enough of them to run on its own through a grid outage.

The wait here is about two years. Cummins said in August 2026 that a new order for its largest genset would arrive in the second half of 2028, and that some customers were stepping down to smaller sets because the big ones were sold out. It is adding 20 GW of capacity, phasing in through 2030.

Our Analysis on backup generators booked into 2028, published today, maps who keeps the margin in that queue.

Who makes the switchgear and UPS inside the data center?

Schneider Electric, Eaton, Vertiv and ABB do most of it. Inside the fence, power is stepped down again, switched, conditioned and backed up by batteries in an uninterruptible power supply, or UPS, which carries the servers for the seconds before generators start. Power distribution units then split it out to each rack.

Vertiv’s third quarter shows how far ahead customers are buying. Sales rose 61% to $4,313 million and organic orders more than doubled. Its deferred revenue, money customers have paid before delivery, reached $4,120.5 million at 30 September, against $1,814.7 million at the end of 2025.

Our arithmetic: that is about 2.3 times the year-end figure, a rise of about $2.3 billion in nine months, and equal to about 96% of a full quarter’s sales. Customers are paying up front to hold a place in the line.

Schneider Electric reported record third-quarter revenue of €11.46 billion on 16 October, up 16.9% organically, with triple-digit growth in data centre demand. Our Catalyst note on Schneider’s third quarter and Analysis on Vertiv’s prepaid gear line go further into both.

How far ahead is data center power equipment booked?

Two to six years, depending on the step. The longest books are in gas turbines and grid transformers; the shortest in the gear inside the hall, though even there customers are prepaying.

Company figures from results and calls dated 4 August to 29 October 2026. Order-book years assume each company keeps shipping at its latest quarterly pace; all six are adding capacity, so treat them as a measure of how full the books are, not a forecast.

Set against a build, these waits are long. Hitachi Energy’s chief executive put a data centre at about two years to build and a new factory at three to four. Our guide to how long an AI data centre takes to build breaks down the rest of the clock.

Who gets paid, and where is the stuck step?

Our read: the gear makers are paid early, the hall owner pays and waits, and the stuck step is factory capacity.

• Gear makers are paid first. Slot reservations, deposits and prepayments arrive years before delivery. GE Vernova converted 13 GW of reservations into firm orders in the third quarter, and Vertiv held more than $4 billion of customer money ahead of delivery.
• Their suppliers come next. Turbine blades, transformer steel and insulation, and large engines all have their own queues. When a maker cannot get a part, its own customers wait.
• The hall owner pays and waits. A developer or neocloud can sign land, power and tenants, but it cannot energise the hall until the gear arrives. Until then it carries the cost without the revenue.

The stuck step is the factory. Demand can rise in a quarter; a new transformer or engine plant takes three to four years. Hitachi Energy says it is investing more than $9 billion and needs framework deals and reserved capacity from buyers to invest faster. Our guide to contracted power shows the same gap from the buyer’s side: signed megawatts that cannot earn until the gear is in.

Why does this matter for Singapore and Asia?

Because Asia is both a buyer and a maker. Schneider said its third-quarter growth was led by China and East Asia, with data centres the main driver. Korea’s transformer makers are filling US orders, and HD Hyundai Electric is spending 198 billion won on its Cheongju campus to meet AI data centre demand. Our note on Singapore’s power plan for data centres covers the grid side of the region’s tightest market.

For the region’s builders, a full order book abroad means a longer wait at home. Today’s Markets notes on Malaysia’s data centre approvals waiting on water and power checks and Australia’s data centre pipeline and the permit step show where projects stall before the gear even matters. Our read: once permits clear, the gear queue is the next clock.

What would change the view?

• Orders slow while capacity rises. If backlogs stop growing as new plants come on, the wait shortens and prepayments fall. Watch GE Vernova’s reservations and Vertiv’s deferred revenue.
• Cancellations appear. If data centre projects are dropped, slot reservations lapse and the order books thin. Watch for reservations that expire without turning into firm orders.
• Import rules loosen or tighten. The US restriction on Chinese bulk-power gear removes one way data centres cut lead times. Any change to it moves the transformer queue.

What to check next

Watch Cummins’s third-quarter results on 5 November for its genset wait, and Siemens Energy’s full-year results in November for its grid and gas books. Our AI Data Centers layer tracks the halls that need the gear, and our Stack page on how hyperscalers buy power covers the contracts behind it.

Common misconceptions

• People assume the GPU is the hard part to get. Actually a large transformer or turbine can take longer. Cummins’s biggest genset ordered in August 2026 arrives in late 2028.
• People assume a data centre plugs straight into the grid. Actually power passes through several stages of transformers and switchgear, plus generators and batteries, before it reaches a rack.
• People assume backlog is revenue already earned. Actually it is work still to ship. Caterpillar expects 58% of its $78 billion backlog to ship within a year; the rest comes later.
• People assume one company makes it all. Actually each step has different makers, and the bind moves between them.

FAQ

Related: who builds AI data centres; how much power an AI data centre uses; contracted power; AI data centre; PUE.

Stack doors

Layer: AI Data Centers. Also: Hyperscalers. Markets: US, Korea, Singapore.

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Not investment advice. Do your own research.

References