Siemens raises outlook as CEO touts AI shift

German industrial giant Siemens on Thursday raised its outlook for the year after a strong first quarter boosted by spending on artificial intelligence.

Along with other industrial firms including France's Schneider Electric, Siemens -- which makes electrical gear -- has benefitted from a buildout of data centres in the United States that provide the computing power for artificial intelligence.

Core earnings at the firm rose 15% in its first quarter to end December to reach 2.9 billion euros ($3.4 billion), it said, while revenue rose 4% to 19.1 billion euros.


Growth was broad-based across the company, Siemens said, but its infrastructure division which makes much of the real-world electrical equipment needed for data centres saw record order intake.

"This increase was mainly driven by the electrification and the electrical products businesses and included several larger contract wins from data centre customers, predominantly in the US," Siemens said.

The firm raised its outlook for earnings per share, a measure of underlying profitability, from a range of 10.40 to 11.00 euros to 10.70 to 11.10 euros.

Net profit however fell 43%due to a comparison effect: Siemens sold industrial motor maker Innomotics in the first quarter of last year.

Siemens CEO Roland Busch said the performance showed that the industrial giant was "very well positioned".

"We're scaling industrial AI in our core industries together with world-class partners," he said.

Under Busch, Siemens has pivoted towards higher-margin software products, looking to capitalise on data collection in order to help customers automate processes.