NEW YORK, Feb 3, 2026, 08:14 EST
- Siemens Energy plans a $1 billion U.S. manufacturing push, including a Mississippi grid-equipment factory due in 2028.
- CEO Christian Bruch says data centres are driving the rush; the company cites about 20 gigawatts tied to U.S. data-centre needs.
- Grid connection delays and equipment shortages are already slowing efforts to add power and grid capacity.
Siemens Energy plans to invest $1 billion to expand U.S. power-grid and gas-turbine component production, aiming to meet rising demand from data centres built for artificial intelligence (AI). The company said the plan includes a new power-grid equipment factory in Mississippi; CEO Christian Bruch called it the group’s largest worldwide and said it should be completed in 2028. Big Tech has been pouring hundreds of billions into data centres, sparking a wave of power deals even as equipment shortages and permitting delays bite. (Reuters)
The investment lands as utilities and policymakers scramble to model the data-centre load. A Congressional Research Service report said data centres used about 176 terawatt-hours in 2023 — around 4.4% of U.S. electricity consumption — and some projections put the share as high as 12% by 2028. (Congress)
Grid connections are already a choke point. In Europe, linking a data centre to the transmission network can take up to seven years, and “certainty of the delivery date has continued to be delayed,” said Pamela MacDougall, Amazon Web Services’ head of energy markets and regulation in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, in an interview with Reuters. In the United States, connection queues average one to three years, the International Energy Agency said. (Reuters)
Chief executive Christian Bruch called the U.S. “the hottest electricity market in the world” and said it was Siemens Energy’s biggest market for order intake last year; the company makes 22% of sales there and employs 12% of staff. He said data centres are behind a big part of the surge and that Siemens Energy has about 20 gigawatts of generation power tied to U.S. data centres, across orders and “reservation agreements” — deals used to hold future production slots. Bruch said the U.S. expansion would add about a fifth to the group’s global capacity for large turbines and let its Berlin plant focus more on Europe and the Middle East. (Investing)
Siemens Energy said it finalised the investment programme set out at a capital markets day in Charlotte, North Carolina, in November. It plans expansions at existing sites in Alabama, New York, Texas and Florida, plus more work in North Carolina and a new switchgear plant in Mississippi. Switchgear is the breakers and controls that route and protect high-voltage electricity. (Siemens Energy)
In the Greater Richland Area, the company said the new high-voltage switchgear factory would hire up to 300 people and include a training centre. It also plans to add 500 jobs across three North Carolina communities, create 120 jobs in Fort Payne, and build an AI digital grid technologies lab with Nvidia as it relocates its headquarters to Lake Nona in Orlando. Bruch called the expansion a “once-in-a-generation growth opportunity,” and Doug Burgum called the investment “tremendous” in a company statement. (MarketScreener)
The $1 billion plan sits inside a wider investment programme that Siemens Energy outlined in November, when it said it would spend around 6 billion euros by 2028, with roughly a third earmarked for transformers, which step voltage up or down, and switchgear plants. GE Vernova has mapped out about $9 billion of investment through 2028, Reuters reported. (Reuters)
Shortages are already stretching delivery times for key equipment. Wood Mackenzie data cited by Reuters Events showed demand for U.S. generation step-up transformers — equipment that raises voltage leaving power plants — jumped 274% between 2019 and 2025, with average delivery times in 2025 running well over two years. “U.S. transmission capex” — capital spending on power lines and substations — has started to accelerate, said Edvard Christoffersen of Rystad Energy. (Reuters)
Hitachi Energy said in 2025 it would invest $1 billion to expand U.S. manufacturing for grid components, including a large power transformer facility in Virginia expected to begin service by 2028. “Bringing production of large power transformers to the U.S. is critical,” chief executive Andreas Schierenbeck said. (Reuters)
Schneider Electric has also been pushing deeper into the data-centre buildout, saying it signed nearly $2.3 billion in U.S. deals with operators including Switch and Digital Realty. “Current data centre infrastructure wasn’t built to meet the demands of AI,” said Vandana Singh. Analysts at Morgan Stanley have estimated that global power demand from data centres will nearly triple in the next three years. (Reuters)
But the boom is hard to size, and the wrong guess can get expensive. The World Resources Institute said forecasts vary widely because utilities are seeing speculative connection requests, and shortages of transformers, switchgear and gas turbines can stretch construction timelines by 24 to 72 months. It said overbuilt or underused projects can still push costs onto other customers. (Wri)
