Carrier Data Center Orders Rise 300 Percent, Lifting Backlog Past $8.5 Billion
Total orders rose about 35 percent and commercial HVAC orders about 60 percent. Sales reached $6.3 billion. A $3.1 billion goodwill charge on the European business produced a GAAP loss of $3.16 a share.
Carrier Global's data center orders rose about 300 percent in the third quarter, pushing backlog above $8.5 billion, up 60 percent from a year earlier, the company said Oct. 29. Organic orders climbed about 35 percent overall and commercial HVAC orders about 60 percent, both excluding the NORESCO business Carrier sold in August.
Net sales increased 12 percent to $6.26 billion, with organic growth of 15 percent. Adjusted earnings reached 87 cents a share against 67 cents a year earlier, about 10 cents of it from IEEPA tariff refunds. On a GAAP basis Carrier lost $3.16 a share after a $3.1 billion noncash goodwill impairment tied to its Climate Solutions Europe reporting unit. CEO David Gitlin told analysts he remains confident in the rationale for the European acquisition, adding, "In hindsight, our timing was unfortunate."
A $3 Billion Hyperscaler Deal Outside the Backlog
The backlog figure leaves out long-term agreements. Gitlin said Carrier signed one this month with a hyperscaler for more than $3 billion, "with a significant portion of that covered by a minimum volume commitment." Asked whether those contracts shield Carrier from inflation, he said, "So we feel well protected both on the load side as we invest in new capacity and we feel well protected on the margin side."
Data center orders have passed $3 billion so far this year, up nearly 350 percent. Sales from the category topped $550 million in the quarter, and Carrier kept its target of $2 billion for the full year. Carrier introduced its 2- and 3-megawatt air-cooled chillers over roughly the past four months, with "some initial teething pains with the supply chain," Gitlin said.
Carrier is also building out liquid cooling on its own after looking at acquisitions. Gitlin said "effectively a CDU is a mini chiller." Carrier has introduced a 1-megawatt coolant distribution unit, expects one near 3 megawatts within a couple of months and is already booking orders for a 5-megawatt model due toward the end of the year.
- Climate Solutions Americas sales: $3.35 billion, up 24 percent
- Adjusted operating margin: 17.4 percent, up 260 basis points, including about $130 million in IEEPA refunds
- Commercial orders excluding data centers: up 20 percent
- Full-year sales guidance: $23.8 billion to $24.0 billion, up from about $23 billion
- Full-year adjusted EPS guidance: $2.85 to $2.90, from about $2.90
Residential Beats the Plan as Price Falls Short
Residential sales in the Americas grew more than 30 percent, "benefiting from the absence of destocking," CFO Patrick Goris said, and field inventory ended the quarter about flat with last year. Carrier had expected an Americas residential market below 7 million units this year and now sees 7.5 million to 8 million. Gitlin put side-discharge units at about 20 percent of that total.
Profit did not keep up. Carrier now expects an Americas operating margin of about 19 percent for the year, which Goris attributed to "positive, but lower than expected price realization" along with input costs and supply chain problems. Those input costs come to about $800 million for 2026, a little less than half from tariffs, and Carrier's planning assumes another large headwind next year. Gitlin said the company has announced price actions of up to 10 percent across the Americas portfolio.
In Europe, heat pump and air conditioning sales each rose about 35 percent while boiler sales fell by high single digits.
Why This Matters to Contractors
Carrier's new Fort Worth plant, a project of more than $600 million announced Oct. 22, will not begin customer deliveries until late summer 2027, and Gitlin said it will effectively more than double the company's capacity in the Americas. Until then, Carrier is limiting what it sells in verticals such as semiconductor fabs and hospitality. "We've had to constrain our sales folks a little bit," he said. A mechanical contractor pricing a Carrier chiller on one of those jobs over the next nine months is asking for factory space the company says it is already short of.
Sources
- Carrier Global, "Carrier Reports Third Quarter 2026 Results," Oct. 29, 2026 (SEC Exhibit 99). sec.gov
- Earnings Whispers, "Carrier Global Corporation Q3 F2026 Earnings Call Transcript," Oct. 29, 2026. earningswhispers.com
- Carrier Global, "Carrier to Invest More Than $600 Million to Expand Advanced U.S. Manufacturing and Engineering Capacity," Oct. 22, 2026. carrier.com