Schneider Electric and Vertiv dominate the data center physical infrastructure market
As hyperscalers and cloud providers continue to scale AI, it is driving new growth in the data center physical infrastructure market, a trend that was on display in the first quarter.
Leading the market are two power and cooling companies — Schneider Electric and Vertiv.
Both companies saw growth in the first quarter.
Schneider reported group revenues of $10.9 billion, up over 7.4% organic. Led by what it said was “continued strong growth in the Data Center” segment, the company’s Energy Management segment was up over 9.6%.
Likewise, Vertiv reported first-quarter 2025 net sales of $2.04 million, up $397 million, or 24%, compared to the first quarter of 2024.
Schneider and Vertiv, according to Dell’Oro Group, are “virtually tied for global market share, separated by just a tenth of a percentage point.”
DCPI rising
Led by the top cloud service providers, the Data Center Physical Infrastructure (DCPI) market, according to a new Dell’Oro Group report, grew 17 percent year-over-year during the quarter.
While all regions experienced first-quarter growth, North America was the dominant market, with a 23 percent year-over-year increase.
Dell’Oro noted that “EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) and China recorded low-teens growth in U.S. dollar terms, though roughly one-third of that is attributable to currency appreciation.”
The top 10 Cloud Service Providers grew 30 percent Y/Y. Colocation and cloud customer segments accounted for 74% of the total DCPI market growth.
This marks the fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, fueled by continued investment from hyperscalers and colocation providers as they build out capacity to cope with the demand for artificial intelligence (AI) workloads.
"The shift to accelerated computing is reshaping the data center landscape," said Alex Cordovil, Research Director at Dell'Oro Group. "AI is more than a tailwind—it's a structural force driving demand for new infrastructure paradigms.”
Cooling and power demands jump
With Schneider and Vertiv leading the market, Dell’Oro noted that liquid cooling and power distribution continue to see growing momentum.
In the first quarter, direct liquid cooling revenue more than doubled, solidifying its role as what the research firm said is the go-to thermal solution for high-density AI deployments.
Similarly, Dell’Oro said that power distribution remains the fastest-growing segment of DCPI, with busway systems expanding over 40 percent year-over-year.
This growing power demand has driven vendors like Eaton, Legrand, Siemens, and Vertiv to ramp up capacity to meet the surging demand for overhead and scalable power architectures.
“Liquid cooling is gaining traction fast, and high-density power architectures are evolving rapidly, with racks expected to reach 600 kW soon and 1 MW configurations already being under consideration,” Cordovil said.
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Sean Buckley
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