German engineering giant Siemens AG is aiming to tap the AI data centres opportunity in India that has created a need for sustainable electrification and cooling solutions, a senior executive said.
“Data centres are growing significantly, double-digit around the world,” Peter Koerte, member of the managing board, Chief Technology Officer, and Chief Strategy Officer at Siemens AG told ET.
“The good news for us is being an outfitter of data centres, all the electrification comes pretty much from two or three companies. And so, investors would argue that we and Schneider are the ones that stand to benefit the most.”
Globally, data centre revenues for the six biggest electrical firms including ABB Ltd, Siemens AG, Legrand SA and Schneider Electric SE have reached 20 billion euros ($22.2 billion) last year, double from what they were five years earlier.
Siemens had built its third Centre of Competence for Data Centres in Chennai this year, which will serve the APAC region, estimated to invest $75 billion in data centres by 2025, surpassing the US as the highest investing region globally.
Koerte explained that the only way to decarbonise our economies amid the high energy demands of AI is to utilise renewable sources like wind and solar. However, from data centres’ perspective, companies are now exploring nuclear fission and fusion options which could be more reliable than renewables, he said.
Siemens expects India to be among the top three or four markets for the company over the next three years, overtaking Germany and France,
At present India is its fifth-largest market and contributes 3.5-4% of the firm’s revenue, senior executives of the company told media persons on the sidelines of Siemens Innovation Day event in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Siemens has 32 factories in India employing 32,000 of its 2.4 lakh global workforce. It plans to expand its manufacturing base by investing part of 100 million euros capex it announced earlier this year.
When asked about Siemens global vision for industrial AI, Koerte said the biggest challenge at the moment is how to monetize it.
“How do you charge for it? Most of our customers, in the industrial world, don't budget that way. Therefore, tell me the company that makes a lot of money today out of Gen AI. I only know one. That's called Microsoft,” Koerte said.
“It’s a marriage in heaven with OpenAI and Microsoft, which together can get the Copilot embedded into Word, Excel and so on. And so, now you pay for the Microsoft 365 license.”
“So, in our case, it means very often augmenting existing software or existing hardware that we sell instead of selling standalone Gen AI products,” he said.
“Data centres are growing significantly, double-digit around the world,” Peter Koerte, member of the managing board, Chief Technology Officer, and Chief Strategy Officer at Siemens AG told ET.
“The good news for us is being an outfitter of data centres, all the electrification comes pretty much from two or three companies. And so, investors would argue that we and Schneider are the ones that stand to benefit the most.”
Globally, data centre revenues for the six biggest electrical firms including ABB Ltd, Siemens AG, Legrand SA and Schneider Electric SE have reached 20 billion euros ($22.2 billion) last year, double from what they were five years earlier.
Siemens had built its third Centre of Competence for Data Centres in Chennai this year, which will serve the APAC region, estimated to invest $75 billion in data centres by 2025, surpassing the US as the highest investing region globally.
Koerte explained that the only way to decarbonise our economies amid the high energy demands of AI is to utilise renewable sources like wind and solar. However, from data centres’ perspective, companies are now exploring nuclear fission and fusion options which could be more reliable than renewables, he said.
Siemens expects India to be among the top three or four markets for the company over the next three years, overtaking Germany and France,
At present India is its fifth-largest market and contributes 3.5-4% of the firm’s revenue, senior executives of the company told media persons on the sidelines of Siemens Innovation Day event in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Siemens has 32 factories in India employing 32,000 of its 2.4 lakh global workforce. It plans to expand its manufacturing base by investing part of 100 million euros capex it announced earlier this year.
When asked about Siemens global vision for industrial AI, Koerte said the biggest challenge at the moment is how to monetize it.
“How do you charge for it? Most of our customers, in the industrial world, don't budget that way. Therefore, tell me the company that makes a lot of money today out of Gen AI. I only know one. That's called Microsoft,” Koerte said.
“It’s a marriage in heaven with OpenAI and Microsoft, which together can get the Copilot embedded into Word, Excel and so on. And so, now you pay for the Microsoft 365 license.”
“So, in our case, it means very often augmenting existing software or existing hardware that we sell instead of selling standalone Gen AI products,” he said.
