AI Infrastructure Spending to Hit $1 Trillion by 2027 — Two Industrial Giants Stand to Gain

AI's Explosive Growth Is Creating a New Industrial Boom

Capital expenditure on artificial intelligence infrastructure by U.S. hyperscalers is projected to surpass $1 trillion in 2027, according to estimates from S&P Global. While that level of spending could compress margins for the tech giants footing the bill, it simultaneously creates a powerful demand cycle for the industrial companies supplying the physical backbone of the AI revolution — particularly Vertiv Holdings (NYSE: VRT) and Quanta Services (NYSE: PWR).

Vertiv Holdings: Cooling and Power for the AI Age

As AI chips become exponentially more powerful, the physical demands they place on data center infrastructure have grown accordingly. Vertiv Holdings has emerged as a critical supplier in this environment, offering thermal management systems, liquid cooling solutions, and uninterruptible power supply (UPS) units designed to keep modern data centers operational under extreme workloads.

The company has deepened its strategic position through a partnership with Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), co-developing 800-volt DC power architectures specifically designed for Nvidia's highest-performance GPU systems. The latest generation of AI chips consumes so much electricity and generates so much heat that many data centers require significant infrastructure overhauls just to house them — and Vertiv products are central to those upgrades.

The financial results reflect this demand dynamic. Vertiv's revenue more than doubled from $5.0 billion in 2021 to $10.2 billion in 2025. Over the same period, its adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) more than tripled, climbing from $698 million to $2.2 billion.

The company's order backlog also more than doubled year over year, reaching $15 billion at the close of 2025, with Vertiv continuing to expand global manufacturing capacity to address that pipeline. Analysts project the company's revenue and adjusted EBITDA will grow at compound annual rates of 28% and 38%, respectively, between 2025 and 2028.

With an enterprise value of approximately $117 billion, Vertiv trades at around 34 times this year's adjusted EBITDA — a premium valuation that reflects its positioning within one of the fastest-growing segments of the technology supply chain.

Quanta Services: Powering the Grid That Powers AI

Where Vertiv addresses infrastructure inside data centers, Quanta Services (NYSE: PWR) operates at the broader energy grid level. The company builds high-voltage transmission lines, electrical substations, renewable energy facilities, and dedicated data center power systems for utility and energy sector clients.

Over the past three decades, Quanta has assembled its capabilities through acquisitions of more than 200 companies across North America and Australia, creating a diversified engineering and construction platform that is now directly in the path of AI-driven electricity demand.

The numbers illustrate the scale of the opportunity. Quanta's year-end backlog more than doubled from $19.3 billion in 2021 to $44 billion by the end of 2025, largely driven by surging demand from cloud and AI infrastructure buildout. That expansion is also accelerating a broader trend: utilities across the United States are under pressure to modernize aging electrical grids and develop new transmission capacity to handle renewable energy sources like wind and solar.

Analysts forecast Quanta's revenue and adjusted EBITDA will expand at CAGRs of 17% and 19%, respectively, from 2025 through 2028, as the company transmits growing volumes of power to an increasingly energy-hungry data center landscape. At an enterprise value of roughly $103 billion, Quanta currently trades at approximately 29 times this year's adjusted EBITDA.

Why the Industrial Angle on AI Matters

Much of the attention in the AI investment narrative has focused on semiconductor designers, cloud platform operators, and software companies. However, the physical infrastructure required to run AI at scale — cooling systems, power delivery, grid upgrades, and transmission networks — represents a massive and often underappreciated capital deployment opportunity.

S&P Global's projection of $1 trillion in hyperscaler AI capex by 2027 underscores just how significant the downstream demand for industrial solutions has become. Companies like Vertiv and Quanta are positioned at the intersection of energy infrastructure and technology growth, sectors that rarely converge with this kind of momentum.

What Investors Are Watching

Key metrics to monitor for both companies include backlog growth trajectories, margin expansion as manufacturing scales, and the pace at which utilities commit to grid modernization projects. For Vertiv, Nvidia's product roadmap and GPU adoption rates remain closely tied to demand. For Quanta, federal energy policy and renewable energy incentives will play an important role in shaping the long-term pipeline.

With AI capex projections continuing to climb, the industrial infrastructure underpinning that growth is drawing increasing scrutiny from investors seeking exposure beyond the traditional technology sector.