Investors are worried that artificial-intelligence spending is out of control and about to crash, derailing what has driven the lion's share of stock gains for years.
The risk of an AI spending slowdown is real -- and worth paying attention to. A slowdown, however, just isn't showing up in the results of the AI infrastructure providers yet. That should be a relief to investors.
Take Schneider Electric, the provider of electrical infrastructure to utilities, homes, and AI data centers. Thursday, the company reported first-half 2026 results, surpassing Wall Street's projections and hitting records for sales and earnings. What's more, the company expects to grow 2026 operating profit by 14% to 19%, up from a prior range of 10% to 15%.
Schneider Electric stock was up 9.6% in overseas trading, while the S&P 500 added 0.9% in early trading, helped by strong earnings from Microsoft. Its shares jumped almost 14% early on Thursday.
Shares of Solstice Advanced Materials were up 6.4% at $59.25, following its second-quarter report. The provider of cooling solutions for AI data centers and fuel products for the nuclear power industry reported adjusted earnings per share of 88 cents. Wall Street was looking for EPS of 77 cents. Solstice also raised the midpoint of full-year earnings-per-share guidance to $2.85, up from $2.60 previously.
"We're in constant communication with [our customers]," says Solstice CEO David Sewell, and those customers have continued to increase their demand forecasts for the coming years. The semiconductor companies are also starting to produce more-advanced chips that need new cooling and fabrication technologies.
"We're in the very early stages of [the AI buildout] right now," says CRH CEO Jim Mintern. "We've seen a meaningful tick up in 2026," adding that the scale of the data center projects is huge.
CRH is a large provider of aggregates and building materials, as well as services such as road construction. It reported better-than-expected second-quarter earnings on Thursday. Shares were up in early trading, before fading to $98.84, down 0.9%.
It's a good outlook, but not a great reaction. Shares of electrical-infrastructure builder Quanta Services, however, are up 16.2% in early trading. It reported earnings on Thursday. "Quanta's 2Q26 print was strong across the board," wrote Evercore ISI analyst Nicholas Amicucci in a Thursday note. Earnings per share were $4.24, far better than the $3.31 Wall Street expected. The company also raised guidance due to "improved second-half visibility," added Amicucci.
Sales this year will be roughly $39.5 billion. Prior guidance was about $35 billion.
The AI building boom continues for now.