French electrical equipment maker Legrand has once again raised its full-year sales guidance, as customers across the world continue pouring billions of dollars into artificial intelligence infrastructure, cementing the company’s transformation from a traditional building electronics supplier into a key beneficiary of the global data center boom.
Guidance Raised for the Second Time This Year
Legrand now expects organic sales growth of between 8% and 10% for 2026, a notable upgrade from its earlier guidance of 4% to 7% growth, the company said Wednesday alongside its first-half results. The upward revision was driven by continued strength in data centers, growing demand for energy transition solutions, and contributions from recent acquisitions. This marks the second time this year Legrand has lifted its targets, following an earlier upgrade to its operating margin outlook in February, when the company cited surging North American data center demand as the primary catalyst.
The latest increase came alongside a strong first-half performance, with Legrand reporting record sales growth of 17% excluding currency effects for the period. Chief Executive Officer Benoit Coquart said the company’s confidence in its action plans, combined with that strong first-half showing, gave management the conviction needed to raise full-year targets once again.
Data Centers Become a Core Growth Engine
Data centers have rapidly evolved from a niche category within Legrand’s business into one of its most important growth drivers. The segment accounted for roughly a quarter of the company’s total sales in 2025, and Coquart has indicated that share could potentially climb toward 30% in the coming years, though he does not expect it to exceed 60% given the enduring importance of Legrand’s traditional residential and commercial building business. Company data show that data center revenue has surged nearly sevenfold since 2018, comfortably exceeding 2 billion euros in 2025 alone, a trajectory closely tied to the explosive growth in artificial intelligence workloads requiring ever more power distribution and building infrastructure equipment.
The United States, which represents close to 40% of Legrand’s total group revenue, has been a particular bright spot, with North American sales climbing more than 20% in some recent reporting periods, driven overwhelmingly by data center-related demand even as more traditional end markets like residential construction have remained comparatively subdued.
Acquisitions Reinforce the Strategy
Beyond organic growth, Legrand has aggressively pursued acquisitions to deepen its exposure to data centers and the broader energy transition. In 2025 alone, the company completed seven acquisitions focused on digital infrastructure and new energy segments, adding roughly 500 million euros in additional revenue while maintaining healthy profit margins. Notable purchases included Brazilian data center infrastructure specialist Green4T and U.S.-based power distribution systems maker Kratos Industries. The company has continued that acquisition pace into 2026, most recently announcing deals for Girtz Industries in the United States and SRS Power Engineering in Malaysia, along with a majority stake in French access control specialist Cogelec.
Since 2020, Legrand has completed 35 acquisitions, investing roughly 5 billion euros in total, with about three-quarters of the acquired revenue coming from businesses tied to energy transition and digital infrastructure — underscoring how central M&A has become to the company’s broader growth strategy.
Ambitious Long-Term Targets
Legrand’s raised near-term guidance sits within a broader set of ambitious targets the company has set for 2030, when it aims to reach approximately 15 billion euros in annual sales alongside average adjusted operating margins above 20%, average annual free cash flow of around 10 billion euros, and roughly 5 billion euros earmarked for further acquisitions. Management has said it continues to evaluate hundreds of potential acquisition targets, with roughly half connected to the energy transition and digital transformation themes central to its long-term strategy.
What Comes Next
Looking ahead, Legrand has scheduled its next Capital Markets Day for September 29, 2026, in Singapore, timed to coincide with the Data Centre World Asia conference, where the company plans to provide further detail on its progress toward its 2030 ambitions and lay out its strategic roadmap for data centers in greater depth. With AI-related infrastructure spending showing few signs of slowing globally, Legrand’s ability to keep capturing a growing share of that investment, both organically and through continued acquisitions, is likely to remain central to the company’s growth story in the years ahead.
