Caterpillar is celebrating its centennial anniversary in 2025, with a shift in focus towards the energy and transportation sectors, led by a surge in data center demand. In 2024, energy and transportation generated $28.9 billion in revenue, outpacing construction's $25.5 billion. Power generation for data centers has been a critical growth area, prompting Caterpillar to increase manufacturing capacity for gas-fired turbines by 125%. The company anticipates a 25% rise in U.S. electricity demand by 2035, influenced by the AI revolution and other global trends.
"It's the biggest and fastest growing part of Caterpillar. The growth is really driven by energy demand," said Jason Kaiser, Caterpillar group president for energy and transportation, joking that most people think about construction-or even hats and boots-when they think about Caterpillar.
"Power generation, which is where data centers fall, has been the main part of that growth," Kaiser told Fortune. "We're focused on investing to take advantage of that as a company."
Driven in part by the AI revolution, after years of flat power usage, Caterpillar sees U.S. electricity demand growing by 25% from 2023 to 2035-or 60% from 2023 to 2050-and the rest of the world is rising too, citing date from the International Energy Agency.
Caterpillar has been increasing its manufacturing capacity, especially for gas-fired turbines at its California facilities. Caterpillar's engine manufacturing capacity for data centers is increasing 125% from 2023, Kaiser said.
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