Schneider Electric CEO Olivier Blum: 5 Boldest Statements From Innovation Summit North America

Schneider Electric CEO Olivier Blum says the $38 billion energy and power behemoth is ready to make energy more efficient everywhere in the world in the AI era.

Schneider Electric CEO Olivier Blum Monday told several thousand North America partners and customers that the $38 billion energy and power behemoth is ready to make energy more efficient everywhere in the world in the AI era.

“We have been saying for the past 10 years that the future is about electrification and digitalization,” said Blum in a keynote address at the company’s Innovation Summit 2025 in Las Vegas. “But what AI is bringing to this equation is taking digitalization to the next level, and the combination of the two gives us a massive opportunity to make energy efficient everywhere in the world.”

Blum said the electrification and digitalization challenges posed by the acceleration of AI and AI data centers has made this the energy century.

“This energy transition that we are looking at, whether you do for it security, you do it for efficiency, sustainability, affordability, it is really the topic of this century,” he said. “We strongly believe it will happen thanks to electrification and digitalization.”

Schneider Electric is challenged week in and week out by the increasing power required to run AI data centers, said Blum.

“Every single week and every single month we are challenged on how we can go to the next level to build 200-gigawatt [capable data centers] by 2030 with more than half of them to support AI. By 2027 already 30 percent will be for AI.”

Schneider Electric is helping power the future with a new AI-powered version of its popular EcoStruxure platform.

Schneider Electric said the new platform boosts operational efficiency by up to 50 percent by taking a unified approach to managing energy, power and building systems. That unified approach provides what the company calls “unprecedented control, visibility and predictive insight.” The new platform—which was demonstrated in the keynote address—will be available to early adopter customers in the third quarter of next year.

With AI taking energy, power and cooling requirements to the next level, Schneider Electric said it is prepared to respond to the challenge. “What’s important for a company like Schneider is the possibilities we can deliver for our customers, the possibilities we have for the technology that can take it to the next level,” he said.

Here are Blum’s five boldest statement from his Innovation Summit North America keynote.

The Energy Century

At Schneider Electric we believe this century is special. This century is about energy.

This energy transition that we are looking at, whether you do for it security, you do it for efficiency, sustainability, affordability, it is really the topic of this century.

We strongly believe it will happen thanks to electrification and digitalization.

Electrification has accelerated everywhere. But what has changed drastically in the past two years is, of course, digitalization. We all know what this digitalization is about because we have been living in the past 10, 15 and 20 years in a world we see digitalization touching every part of our lives.

But what is happening with AI is taking everything to the next level. What’s important for a company like Schneider is the possibilities we can deliver for our customers, the possibilities we have for the technology that can take it to the next level

‘AI Is Touching Every Single Part Of Our Lives’

AI is touching every single part of our lives. It is touching our personal life. It is touching our companies.

Over 88 percent of large companies in the world are implementing AI technology. … And probably it will be 100 percent very soon.

Every single day those metrics are changing. AI is touching your life, touching your company, but even more important the investment that we see on how AI is going to impact our industry, and how industries will work, how it is going to impact machines, how machines will be connected and amplified by AI, that is going to take efficiency to the next level. We see a huge acceleration.

AI is just taking everything to the next level. AI is helping us create much more value for our customers.

Powering A Major Technology Shift

To deliver that major technology shift, we definitely need more compute. We need more data centers. That’s very, very interesting here again. Because for Schneider Electric, it is not only about being the global leader that can find the best technology to create the infrastructure in white space.

It is about really changing everything we think through. You will meet in the next two days all our colleagues from the different R&D departments of Schneider Electric.

They will help you look at what the data center of the future will look like, how you will make it efficient from a power standpoint and from a cooling standpoint.

Every single week and every single month we are challenged on how we can go to the next level to build 200-gigawatt [capable data centers] by 2030 with more than half of them to support AI. By 2027 already 30 percent will be for AI.

The type of technology that we will have to invent, of course, is pretty much impacted by a partner like Nvidia taking GPUs to the next level. Every couple of months we see a new generation [of GPUs].

We used to design the data center a couple of years ago at what used to be [capacities of] 15 or 20 kilowatts. That has moved very quickly to 30 to 40 kilowatts. We are already at 100 [kilowatts] and designing for the data center of the future.

The speed at which the technology is changing is just tremendous, That is why we work very, very closely with all our technology partners.

At 30 to 40 kilowatts you can cool a data center with air cooling. Beyond that it is not possible anymore. That is why Schneider Electric has doubled down on liquid cooling. That is why we have invested a lot in the past few years [in liquid cooling and acquired a controlling interest in October 2024 in] Motivair to take our data center technology to the next level.

We are extremely excited. Since Motivair joined us, we have already doubled the capacity in the U.S. and we are going to double again probably next year to support the growth.

AI Without Electrification Is ‘Not Possible’

AI is touching every single part of what we do in our industry, but AI without electrification definitely is not possible. We have entered for the past 10 years into a new era where electrification is going everywhere in the world. Because the usage has evolved in the last 10 years, it has penetrated homes, for instance, with heat pumps and usage in transportation.

More industries are electrifying their industries to become more and more efficient. We see that happening everywhere in the world. And even if the usage is evolving at a different pace in different parts of the world, we are in an era of electrification.

I remind you that electrification is by far the most efficient source of energy. Ninety percent of the energy that you produce is used on the electrical side. So it has a lot of impact.

The big combination of AI with electrification and the usage changing will have a lot of impact on the way we design the electrical architecture. We have all in this room been educated in a world that was AC, alternative current, and we are moving because of the usage to a world where we have technologies in every single application, AC and DC [direct current]. We see this acceleration happening everywhere in the world.

The Energy Century

We see intelligence in the energy sector. That is why we are so excited at Schneider because we have been saying for the past 10 years that the future is about electrification and digitalization. But what AI is bringing to this equation is taking digitalization to the next level, and the combination of the two gives us a massive opportunity to make energy efficient everywhere in the world. So we are at a unique point of time in our industry.

We strongly believe at Schneider Electric that planet, people, business and all matters are powered by energy. We are in the century of energy. We are at a unique point of time because energy technology will make the difference in the next cycle.

For Schneider Electric next year will be the 190^th year since the creation of Schneider Electric in the world. At every step of every single industrial revolution we have been a very strong actor in disrupting technology and inventing the technology of the future. Collectively we are inventing the new architecture for the electrical distribution of the future.

We want to connect the ecosystem where data, AI and people work together. That is what this Innovation Summit is about. It is so we can connect together and work together on inventing the future of energy technology.