Johnson Controls vs Schneider Electric: Cooling & thermal compared

November 2026 edition · assessment by Frontier Tech Intelligence

Schneider Electric ranks 53 on the AI Infra 100 with a score of 90; Johnson Controls ranks 66 with 88. Johnson Controls is ahead on production and leverage. Schneider Electric is ahead on deployment and positioning. Level on commercials, progress, technology and firepower. Johnson Controls is based in Cork, Ireland, Schneider Electric in Rueil-Malmaison, France. Johnson Controls is named in 5 signals and Schneider Electric in 45.

Johnson Controls →

Cork, Ireland · AI Core · Power, cooling & thermal / Cooling & thermal · johnsoncontrols.com

Johnson Controls supplies YORK chillers, absorption chillers, cooling distribution units and high-temperature heat pumps, including products designed for high-density AI data centers and industrial electrification.

AI Infra 100 · rank 66 · score 88

Scores, AI Core (of 10)

Deployment8
Production8
Commercials10
Progress10
Technology8
Positioning8
Firepower10
Leverage10

Darker bar: ahead of the other company on that measure.

Positioning

Johnson Controls is no longer a building-automation company with a data center side business. Data center revenue is a high-teens percentage of fiscal 2026 sales and the CFO has said it could reach roughly one-third of total company revenue within three to five years. Fiscal Q3 2026 organic sales rose 10 percent to USD 6.6 billion with Applied HVAC posting high-teens growth driven by data center cooling; adjusted segment EBITA margin widened 220 basis points to 19.8 percent; backlog reached a record USD 21 billion, up more than 30 percent, with Americas orders up 37 percent. The technical position rests on two things: NVIDIA certification for its cooling distribution units, with a pipeline above USD 1 billion and shipments beginning, plus a jointly developed AI-factory thermal reference guide; and an absorption chiller reference design the company says cuts cooling electrical demand by approximately 44 percent at a 1 gigawatt AI factory by converting waste heat into cooling, unlocking 97 megawatts of additional compute capacity, which changes site selection economics for hyperscalers. It released the YORK YK-HT two-stage economized centrifugal chiller and exited residential HVAC to focus the portfolio. Its relevance doubles because it led the Accelsius USD 65 million Series B on 2026-01-12, putting it on both sides of the two-phase versus single-phase question.

Latest signals

  • MarketsandMarkets projects the global data-center air-handling unit market will reach $6.7 billion by 2032.Automation News Japan
  • Omen AI raised $31 million in a Series A funding round.The AI Insider
  • Omen AI raised a $31 million Series A to develop data-center fluid monitoring.TechCrunch

5 signals name Johnson Controls.

Facts, with sources

  • controlled_by: public floatwww.prnewswire.com — 2026-09-15
  • Johnson Controls launches high-temperature heat pumps for industrial electrificationwww.prnewswire.com — 2026-09-15
  • High-temperature heat pumps for industrial electrificationwww.prnewswire.com — 2026-09-15

24 facts on file.

Schneider Electric →

Rueil-Malmaison, Île-de-France, France · AI Core · Power, cooling & thermal / Cooling & thermal · se.com

Schneider Electric sells 800 VDC data center cooling architecture for AI workloads to data center operators and infrastructure customers.

AI Infra 100 · rank 53 · score 90

Scores, AI Core (of 10)

Deployment10
Production6
Commercials10
Progress10
Technology8
Positioning10
Firepower10
Leverage8

Darker bar: ahead of the other company on that measure.

Positioning

The largest data-center power and cooling supplier by revenue worldwide (medium-voltage, UPS, racks, liquid cooling via Motivair, DC-wide software); the European anchor of the electrical layer.

Latest signals

  • Schneider Electric launched a 2.5 MW power module for AI data centers.The Elec
  • NVIDIA says the DSX Pod can deliver equivalent AI output with up to 30% less power.Moonshots with Peter Diamandis
  • Schneider Electric reported record-high third-quarter revenue amid the global data center boom.Utility Dive

45 signals name Schneider Electric.

Facts, with sources

  • >500mwww.datacenterdynamics.com — 2026-09-18
  • Schneider Electric agreed to acquire CogniteFrenchWeb
  • Cognite is set to be integrated into AVEVA’s CONNECT platformFrenchWeb

11 facts on file.

More comparisons

Questions this page answers

Johnson Controls or Schneider Electric: which is ahead in ai core?

Schneider Electric ranks 53 on the AI Infra 100 with a score of 90; Johnson Controls ranks 66 with 88. Johnson Controls is ahead on production and leverage. Schneider Electric is ahead on deployment and positioning. Level on commercials, progress, technology and firepower. Johnson Controls is based in Cork, Ireland, Schneider Electric in Rueil-Malmaison, France. Johnson Controls is named in 5 signals and Schneider Electric in 45.

How do Johnson Controls and Schneider Electric compare?

Schneider Electric ranks 53 on the AI Infra 100 with a score of 90; Johnson Controls ranks 66 with 88. Johnson Controls is ahead on production and leverage. Schneider Electric is ahead on deployment and positioning. Level on commercials, progress, technology and firepower. Johnson Controls is based in Cork, Ireland, Schneider Electric in Rueil-Malmaison, France. Johnson Controls is named in 5 signals and Schneider Electric in 45. Both company files carry the scores on eight measures, the facts with sources and the latest signals.

Every comparison here comes from the same files members use every day.

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