Can Strong AI Data Center Demand Help NVT Challenge VRT & SMCI?

nVent Electric NVT is seeing strong demand from data centers as spending on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure continues to rise. NVT expects the infrastructure vertical to post strong double-digit growth in 2026, supported by higher AI-related data center investments. Further, the company expects data center sales to exceed $2 billion in 2026, more than double from 2025 levels. This strong momentum should help NVT strengthen its position against other AI data center infrastructure players such as Vertiv VRT and Super Micro Computer SMCI.

NVT continues to see robust demand from its broad customer base, including hyperscalers, neo-clouds and multi-tenant data centers for its liquid cooling, cable management and engineered buildings solutions. This robust demand helped the company end the second quarter with a $2.5 billion backlog. This momentum is expected to continue as management sees data center orders remaining strong in the third quarter of 2026.

NVT is also adding capacity to meet rising demand. The company opened its Blaine facility in Minnesota earlier in 2026, which effectively doubled its liquid-cooling capacity. Further, management said another expansion is needed and announced the Blaine 2 facility, which is expected to open in the first half of 2027. Management estimates that liquid cooling currently accounts for only 10-15% of data center cooling, leaving room for further adoption. With AI chips creating higher heat densities, the above-mentioned factors show that liquid cooling is expected to remain a long-term growth driver for the company.

NVT remains well-positioned to benefit from strong AI-related demand, healthy orders and new capacity, which could help the company maintain its growth momentum. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for nVent Electric’s 2026 revenues is pegged at $5.45 billion, indicating a year-over-year increase of 39.96%. The consensus estimate for NVT’s 2027 revenues is pegged at $6.44 billion, indicating a year-over-year increase of 18.1%.

How Do Competitors Fare Against NVT

Vertiv is also benefiting from strong AI data center spending and has a broad portfolio covering power and thermal management. VRT offers power, cooling and services as an integrated solution and is expanding its liquid-cooling capabilities through acquisitions, including Strategic Thermal Labs, which added server-side liquid cooling and cold-plate expertise. VRT expects 2026 sales of about $14 billion, up 37% year over year, with organic growth of 31%.

Super Micro Computer is another strong player in AI data-center infrastructure, with its business spanning servers, storage, networking and direct liquid cooling. Its data center building block solutions combine GPU and CPU servers, storage, direct liquid cooling, cooling distribution units, networking and data-center management software. SMCI is also expanding its liquid-cooling capacity and expects its manufacturing network to support more than 3,000 direct liquid-cooled racks per month. For fiscal 2027, the company expects revenues of $65-$72 billion.

NVT's Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates

Shares of nVent Electric have surged 69.7% year to date against the Zacks Electronics - Miscellaneous Components industry’s decline of 9%.

nVent Electric YTD Price Return Performance

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From a valuation standpoint, nVent Electric trades at a forward price-to-sales ratio of 4.58X, higher than the industry’s average of 4.08X. NVT has a Value Score of D.

NVT Forward 12-Month P/S Ratio

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The Zacks Consensus Estimate for nVent Electric’s 2026 and 2027 earnings per share (EPS) implies year-over-year growth of 53.1% and 24.3%, respectively. EPS estimates for 2026 and 2027 have been revised upward by 12.5% and 13.1%, respectively, over the past 30 days.

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nVent Electric currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

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