ABB's order book had its best quarter yet. The Swiss group reported on 20 October that third-quarter orders reached $12,055 million, 40% more than a year earlier, and that orders from data centers grew at a triple-digit rate. Revenue rose 14% to $9,701 million, which gives a book-to-bill of 1.24: the backlog is still growing faster than the factories can work it down.
Where The Orders Came From
Electrification, the business that makes switchgear, breakers and power distribution equipment, carried most of it. Utility Dive reports a record $7.67 billion of segment orders, 70% up, with Electrification orders in the Americas up 117%. Across the group, US orders rose 82% year on year. Chief financial officer Christian Nilsson called data centers the standout customer segment of the quarter, and ABB also pointed to utilities spending on refurbishing and extending their grids.
ABB gave no dollar figure for data center orders, and it did not publish delivery times. Operational EBITA rose 24% to $2,026 million, a margin of 20.8%. Net income fell 2% to $1,181 million, which ABB puts down mainly to a non-cash revaluation of a currency hedge linked to its planned purchase of the actuator maker Rotork.
Two other items came with the results:
- A new direct current product line for AI data centers called Infinitus, with five building blocks; a solid-state transformer from that range is due in the second half of 2027.
- A joint venture in which ABB takes 51% of Mitsubishi Electric's low-voltage power distribution business for about JPY 79 billion (around $495 million), with an option to buy the rest later. ABB says that makes it the low-voltage market leader in Japan.
A Capacity Question, Not A Demand Question
The figure that matters most for buyers is the one about spending. ABB says capital expenditure runs at about $1 billion and is not expected to rise further in the medium term; extra output is to come from incremental capacity, automation and some third-party assembly. Put next to a 1.24 book-to-bill, that reads as a supplier that intends to stay busy rather than build its way out of the queue.
For anyone building a data center or an engine plant, electrical equipment is part of the critical path just like the generating sets themselves. Medium-voltage switchgear, transformers and the protection and control around them have to be ordered early, and a late delivery of a switchboard stops commissioning as surely as a late engine does. On the power generation side, an order book like this one usually means that the electrical package needs the same early reservation that engines and turbines now get.
ABB expects comparable revenue growth in the low teens for 2026 and a positive book-to-bill for the full year.
Sources: ABB (EQS News), Utility Dive, Microgrid Media
