By Rob Curran

Carrier Global's first-quarter net income fell on higher costs but the company logged better-than-expected revenue and reiterated growth projections for the year, as a bonanza in data-center cooling sales offset a continuing slump in residential air-conditioning demand.

The Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., maker of heating, ventilation and air-conditioning machinery on Thursday posted earnings of $238 million, or 28 cents a share, down from $412 million, or 47 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding certain one-off items, Carrier logged adjusted earnings of 57 cents a share, topping the mean analyst estimate of 51 cents a share, according to FactSet.

Sales inched up 2% to $5.34 billion, surpassing the average Wall Street target of $5.02 billion, according to FactSet. Sales were buoyed by currency translation. Organic sales, excluding skew factors such as acquisitions and foreign exchange, fell 1%.

The company said revenue from data centers, many of which house the high-end chips that are the backbone of new artificial-intelligence networks, rose more than six-fold. The computing activity of the chips creates an exorbitant amount of heat, which makes air conditioning a key investment for the center developers. The data-center demand generated 35% growth in quarterly commercial HVAC revenue.

Cost of products sold rose 6.9% to $3.59 billion.

Earlier in April, Madison Air Solutions, a roll-up of ventilation and filtration companies controlled by billionaire Larry Gies, launched in a heavily subscribed initial public offering of 2026.

Carrier backed its prior projection for 2026 adjusted earnings of $2.80 a share on sales of $22 billion, more or less in line with Wall Street targets of $2.78 a share and $21.93 billion, respectively.

Write to Rob Curran at rob.curran@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 30, 2026 06:28 ET (10:28 GMT)

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