Legrand’s Data Center Engine Accelerates Past the Building Barren
Legrand's H1 2026 results are a testament to how decisively the company has repositioned itself toward the AI-driven data center buildout. With data center revenue now comprising 32% of total sales and growing organically in excess of 30%, the group has raised its full-year organic growth guidance to 8-10% from a prior 4-7%. This is a second upgrade in less than a year, reflecting the extraordinary momentum in hyperscale and colocation demand.
Data Center: The New Core
The company's pivot is evident in its numbers. CEO Benoît Coquart opened the call with a clear headline: “The group's strong organic growth in the first half was driven in particular by its Data Center business, which delivered organic growth of above plus 30% and now accounts for 32% of Legrand's revenue.” — Benoît Coquart · 2026-07-29 This is not just about racks and PDUs; Legrand has been methodically building out its power infrastructure portfolio. The critical power segment now spans medium-voltage switchgear, busway, gensets, and testing services, largely through acquisitions such as Avtron and Kratos. So far in 2026, the company has announced seven acquisitions, with a combined annual revenue of around €450 million, all focused on energy and digital transition.
The demand backdrop remains robust. Asked about bubble concerns, Coquart pushed back:
This confidence allowed management to guide full-year data center organic growth to a range of 25-30%, up from the 10-20% they had outlined just six months ago. The contrast with prior guidance is stark. At the February 2026 call, Coquart described the assumptions as “a growth in data center of between plus 10% and plus 20%” — Benoît Coquart, CEO · 2026-02-12. By November 2025, they had already upgraded to “about 30% in 2025 full year” — Benoît Coquart, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) · 2025-11-06. The acceleration is unmistakable.What we see on the ground is that there is a huge demand, which is not slowing down at all, a sort of race to capacity, which is happening with orders coming to be delivered in '26, some of them in '27, some of them in '28.
Pricing Power and Margin Discipline
Despite the inflation in input costs, Legrand has maintained its adjusted operating margin guidance of 20.5-21% for the year. The company executed price increases of +2.9% in H1, with a trajectory that accelerated into Q2, and now expects full-year pricing around +3%. This is a notable step-up from their initial planning assumption of 1-2%. The margin resilience is also supported by cost leverage, as volumes grew 7% while headcount was flat. The trade-off between growth and margin is deliberate. As Coquart told analysts, “Confident in our action plans, we are raising our full year 2026 targets… sales growth, excluding currency effects of between plus 16% and plus 19%” — Benoît Coquart · 2026-07-29. Margin stability masks divergent regional performance: North America is thriving, while Europe is hampered by a weak building market and central costs. Yet the company's white space focus in data centers is precisely where the growth is.
The 800V DC Frontier
A recurring theme in the earnings calls has been the evolution to 800V DC architectures. In the prior quarter, Coquart argued that 80% of Legrand's data center sales would be neutral or positively impacted by the shift. In the current call, he elaborated on the sidecar concept and the company's preparedness. He emphasized that the hybrid architecture, where a power sidecar feeds multiple racks, is the near-term opportunity, while full LVDC remains years away. This aligns with the company's broader strategy of being architecture-agnostic, with a portfolio spanning power generation to racks. The data center market (we already used that, maybe we can use another) We can use "white space" again or "critical power". We'll use "white space" as we already did.
Outlook and Confluence
The global context is supportive. Multiple companies in the recent earnings reporters mention data centers as a growth driver, and industry keywords like 'gigawatt' and 'power' are gaining momentum. Legrand's data center growth is not an isolated story; it's riding a global wave. However, the company's specific positioning—combining white space infrastructure with a growing critical power franchise—gives it a unique degree of leverage. The main risk is the cyclicality of hyperscaler capex. But with a clear pipeline and a raised guidance, Legrand appears to be in the sweet spot. The upcoming Capital Market Day in Singapore on September 29 will likely provide more granularity on the 2030 ambitions, especially around data centers. This is a name in motion, and the market will be watching to see if the 25-30% data center growth is sustainable into 2027.