“Excellent perspective”: AI boom fills order books at construction group Hochtief

The AI ​​boom also has surprising side effects: Because the world's data centers have to be built, the construction industry also benefits. Hochtief is pleased with the outstanding figures and full order books.

After numerous new orders - for example for data centers - the order books of the construction group Hochtief are fuller than ever before. The company announced in Essen that the order backlog had risen to a record level of 90 billion euros by the end of September. This is 29 percent more than a year ago.

“Our record order backlog gives us excellent prospects for the future,” said company boss Juan Santamaría, according to the statement. Santamariá is also the head of Hochtief's parent company ACS, a Spanish construction and infrastructure group. According to the quarterly report, Hochtief has received orders worth almost 27 billion euros for data centers alone in the past twelve months.

In the first nine months, Hochtief increased its operating profit by 40 percent to 752 million euros compared to the previous year. Sales increased by 14 percent to a good 32 billion euros. The growth trajectory in profit and order intake was supported by increasing demand in the four areas of artificial intelligence, energy, defense and critical minerals, it said.

You continue to benefit from increasing demand for modern infrastructure. The company referred to recently received orders for data centers in Asia, the USA and Europe, for the construction of a collection and research center for the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, for work at the Sellafield nuclear site in Great Britain and the expansion of a transmission network in Australia.

Hochtief AG in Essen is the parent company for a worldwide network of construction companies. The construction group does most of its business with its foreign subsidiaries Turner (USA) and Cimic (Australia). At the end of September, the group employed around 64,400 people, almost 2 percent more than a year earlier. The company has been listed in the leading index Dax since June 22nd.